JP2013176697A - Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and control method of the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a biological information processing device and biological information processing method, capable of obtaining more drastically improved spatial resolution compared with a conventional manner by accurately planarizing a frequency spectrum of a reception signal.SOLUTION: A biological information processing method includes: a process for receiving a reflection echo of a pulse wave radiated to a living body and acquiring a reception signal corresponding to the pulse wave; a process for synthesizing multiple reference signals at a predetermined interpolation rate and generating a reference signal for calculation; a process for performing whitening processing with respect to a reception signal by using a reference signal for calculation; a process for calculating a power distribution concerning a depth direction inside a living body with respect to the reception signal after performing the whitening processing by applying a frequency area interferometer technique and a frequency average method; and a process for determining a power distribution to be used for the acquisition of information inside the living body, based on multiple power distributions respectively calculated by changing an interpolation rate.

Description

  The present invention relates to a biological information processing apparatus and a biological information processing method for irradiating a living body with elastic waves and acquiring in-vivo information from the reflected echo.

  In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that realizes medical ultrasonic imaging, the spatial resolution in the depth direction when an image is formed by the pulse echo method is (nλ) / 2 where λ is the wavelength of the ultrasonic wave and n is the transmission wave number. In general. For example, when two wavelengths of ultrasonic waves having a center frequency of 12 MHz are transmitted, the length is about 0.13 mm.

  The pulse echo method will be described. First, when an ultrasonic pulse is transmitted to the subject, the ultrasonic wave is reflected and returned according to the acoustic impedance difference in the subject. Next, the reflected wave is received, and an envelope of the waveform of the reflected wave is acquired. By converting the envelope into a luminance value and displaying it, it becomes possible to image the inside of the subject. In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, it is common to use a plurality of ultrasonic-electrical conversion elements and add a time lag to the waveform between the elements so that both transmission and reception are focused in the subject. is there.

  As described above, the spatial resolution in the depth direction of about 0.13 mm can be realized by using the pulse echo method. Recently, however, higher spatial resolution is required. For example, if the layer structure of the vascular wall of the carotid artery can be observed in more detail, it can be considered to contribute to early detection of arteriosclerosis and the like.

In the field of radar, a frequency domain interferometry (FDI method) is known as a method for estimating a target distance with high accuracy. Non-Patent Document 1 shows the result of applying the FDI method to atmospheric radar. Non-Patent Document 1 shows not only the FDI method but also a result of adopting the Capon method, the MUSIC method, or the like as an adaptive signal processing method for higher resolution.

  The FDI method will be described. The FDI method estimates distance using phase information of a plurality of frequency components. First, when considering a plurality of frequencies having the same phase at a certain reference position, it can be seen that the product of the distance from the reference position and the wave number is proportional to the amount of phase change. That is, when a certain attention distance is set, if the distance from the reference position to the attention distance and the frequency, that is, the wave number, are known, it is possible to calculate how much the phase changes. The received power at the distance of interest can be estimated by giving this changing phase component to the received signals of the respective frequencies and adding them. In general, when the FDI method is applied to radar signal processing, a signal having a narrow band is usually transmitted, and a region where the power is constant within the transmission band is used for imaging. Since imaging is performed using signals within a narrow band, the target dielectric constant, conductivity, and frequency characteristics of the backscattering cross section can be ignored. That is, when attention is paid to different frequencies within a narrow band, the power of the transmission signal is almost the same for any frequency component. Also, the power obtained from the reflected wave signal is almost the same.

  In medical ultrasound imaging, a broadband signal is generally used. That is, a pulse wave having a wide frequency band is transmitted. Note that this band is mainly limited by the transducer that converts ultrasonic waves and electrical signals, and the power of the transmission signal corresponding to different frequencies in the pulse transmission wave is flattened over a wide frequency band. Is practically difficult. In addition, since a broadband signal is used, the target impedance and the frequency characteristics of the backscattering cross section cannot be ignored.

  Consider a case where the FDI method and the Capon method are applied to medical ultrasonic imaging. As described above, a general ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus forms an image by acquiring an envelope of a received waveform. When the resolution is further increased by applying the FDI method and the Capon method, it is assumed that there are a plurality of reflective layers in the FDI processing range. Atmospheric observation radar can suppress correlation between multiple reflected waves from multiple reflective layers by making the observation time sufficiently long. However, in medical ultrasound imaging, the observation time for one processing range is short, and multiple reflections are required. The correlation between waves cannot be suppressed. For this reason, it is considered that a plurality of reflected waves from adjacent reflective layers have high correlation. It is known that when an adaptive signal processing such as the Capon method or the MUSIC method is applied as it is to a plurality of reflected waveforms having such a high correlation, an unexpected operation such as cancellation of a desired signal is performed. Non-Patent Document 2 confirms that the FDI method and the Capon method operate by applying the frequency averaging method to such a situation. Thus, when applying the FDI and Capon methods to medical ultrasound imaging, it is desirable to use the frequency averaging method.

  By the way, when the frequency averaging method is applied to a signal whose frequency spectrum of the received signal is not flat like medical ultrasonic imaging, the following problems occur.

ただしＧ_０（ω）はｇ_０（ｔ）のフーリエ変換によって得られる周波数スペクトルである。 First, the frequency averaging method will be described. Consider an environment in which only two waves, a desired wave g ₀ (t−τ ₁ ) and a correlated interference wave g ₀ (t−τ ₂ ), exist in one range gate. However, g ₀ (t) and τ _i are the transmission wave and the delay time of the target i, respectively. The received signal g ₀ (t−τ ₁ ) + g ₀ (t−τ ₂ ) and the reference wave g ₀ (t) are each Fourier transformed to obtain the correlation H (ω).

However, G ₀ (ω) is a frequency spectrum obtained by Fourier transform of g ₀ (t).

と表せる。ただし添え字のＨは複素共役転置を意味する。この式の中で第３項と第４項は所望波と干渉波との相互相関を表す。この相互相関が存在する場合、Ｃａｐｏｎ法は相関性干渉波によって所望波を相殺するように動作してしまう。この現象を抑制するために周波数平均法を用いる。周波数平均法について図１を用いて説明する。Ｍ個の入力信号からＭ×Ｍのサイズを有する相関行列を作成する。その中で行列の次元がＫであるサブアレイに分け、ｎ番目のサブアレイをＲ_ｎと定義する。周波数平均後の相関マトリクスＲ’は以下の式で求めることが出来る。

ただし、ｖ_ｎは周波数平均法で用いるサブアレイの重みであり、実数かつ以下の式を満たす。

The correlation r _ij between the frequency i and j components of H (ω) is

It can be expressed. However, the subscript H means complex conjugate transpose. In this equation, the third and fourth terms represent the cross-correlation between the desired wave and the interference wave. When this cross-correlation exists, the Capon method operates to cancel the desired wave with the correlated interference wave. A frequency averaging method is used to suppress this phenomenon. The frequency averaging method will be described with reference to FIG. A correlation matrix having a size of M × M is created from M input signals. Dimensions of the matrix within which is divided into sub-arrays is K, the n-th sub-array is defined as R _n. The correlation matrix R ′ after frequency averaging can be obtained by the following equation.

However, v _n is the weight of sub-arrays used in the frequency averaging method, satisfy the real and the following equation.

  When the Capon method is used in the radar field, it is common to transmit a narrow-band signal and use a region where the power is constant within the transmission band for imaging. At this time, the transmission power at each frequency of the signal is equal to the target. The frequency characteristics of can be ignored. Therefore, the frequency averaging method works without problems. However, as described above, when a wideband signal is used in medical ultrasonic imaging, the transmission signal power differs for each frequency. That is, the value of the amplitude component of the first term and the second term of the expression for obtaining the correlation differs for each frequency. The frequency averaging method assumes that the cross-correlation value approaches 0 while maintaining the state where the amplitude components of the first and second terms are equal by averaging the partial correlation matrix. Therefore, the cross-correlation value cannot be brought close to 0 when the frequency averaging method is performed without aligning the powers of all frequencies regardless of the presence or absence of correlated interference waves. In this case, there is a problem that not only the effect of increasing the resolution by the Capon method cannot be obtained, but also the power from the reflector that actually exists is canceled, and the reflector is not displayed on the image.

  Therefore, whitening is known as a process for flattening the frequency spectrum of a received signal using a reference signal.

  In the radar field, there is Non-Patent Document 3 that performs whitening processing when transmitting a pulse wave having a relatively wide frequency band. Here, an electromagnetic pulse is transmitted to the metal plate, and the received signal is used as a reference signal. The received signal is decomposed for each frequency and then divided by the frequency spectrum of the reference signal as an input signal. A flattened frequency spectrum of the received signal by this processing is used as the input signal.

H.Luce, M.Yamamoto, S.Fukao, D.Helal and M.Crochet: Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. 63 (2001) 221-234. Tomoki Kimura, Hirofumi Taki, Takuya Sakamoto and Toru Sato: Proc. Of Symposium on Ultrasonic Electronics, Vol.29 (2008) pp.279-280 Cedric Le Bastard, Vincent Baltazart, Yide Wang, and Joseph Saillard "Thin-Pavement Thickness Estimation Using GPR With High-Resolution and Superresolution Methods," IEEE Trans. Geoscience and Remote Sensing. Vil. 45, No. 8, pp 2511-2519 , August 2007

  By the way, in a medical ultrasonic wave, a problem may arise when a simple reflected waveform is used as a reference signal. In medical ultrasonic imaging, as described above, broadband signals are transmitted and received, and the frequency characteristics of acoustic impedance and backscattering cross-section cannot be ignored. In addition, since frequency characteristics such as acoustic impedance and backscattering cross section vary depending on various different target types such as muscle tissue, fat, and blood, whitening with a single function as in the method of Non-Patent Document 3 is also possible. The frequency spectrum of the received signal cannot be flattened with high accuracy. In this case, there is a problem that not only the effect of increasing the resolution cannot be obtained, but also the power from the reflector that actually exists is canceled, and the reflector is not displayed on the image.

  In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a biological information processing apparatus and a biological information processing method that can flatten the frequency spectrum of a received signal with high accuracy and can dramatically improve the spatial resolution as compared with the conventional art. Objective.

The biological information processing apparatus of the present invention
A biological information processing apparatus that acquires in-vivo information from reflected echoes of elastic waves irradiated on a living body,
A receiving unit that receives a reflected echo of a pulse wave applied to the living body and obtains a reception signal corresponding to the pulse wave;
A reference signal synthesis unit that synthesizes a plurality of reference signals at a predetermined interpolation rate and creates a reference signal for calculation;
A whitening process is performed on the received signal using the calculation reference signal created by the reference signal synthesis unit, and a frequency domain interferometry method and a frequency average are performed on the received signal subjected to the whitening process. Applying a method to calculate a power distribution in the depth direction in the living body; and
A living body information comprising: a power distribution determining unit that determines a power distribution used for acquiring information in the living body based on a plurality of power distributions respectively calculated by changing the interpolation rate. It is a processing device.

The biological information processing apparatus of the present invention is
A biological information processing method for acquiring in-vivo information from reflected echoes of elastic waves irradiated on a living body,
A receiving unit that receives a reflected echo of a pulse wave applied to the living body and obtains a reception signal corresponding to the pulse wave;
A reference signal synthesis unit that synthesizes a plurality of reference signals using a plurality of different interpolation rates, and creates a plurality of calculation reference signals corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates;
The frequency spectrum of the received signal is flattened using each of the plurality of calculation reference signals, and a frequency domain interferometer method and a frequency average method are applied to each of the plurality of flattened signals. A signal processing unit that calculates a plurality of power distributions in the depth direction in the living body corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates;
A biological information processing apparatus comprising: a power distribution determining unit that determines a power distribution used for acquiring information in the living body based on a plurality of power distributions corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates. is there.

The biological information processing method of the present invention includes:
A biological information processing method for acquiring in-vivo information from reflected echoes of elastic waves irradiated on a living body,
Receiving a reflected echo of a pulse wave applied to the living body, and obtaining a received signal corresponding to the pulse wave;
A step of synthesizing a plurality of reference signals at a predetermined interpolation rate to create a calculation reference signal,
Performing a whitening process on the received signal using the calculation reference signal;
Applying a frequency domain interferometer method and a frequency averaging method to the received signal subjected to the whitening process to calculate a power distribution in the depth direction in the living body;
Determining a power distribution to be used for acquiring information in the living body based on a plurality of power distributions calculated by changing the interpolation rate,
It is a biological information processing method characterized by having.

The biological information processing method of the present invention includes
A biological information processing method for acquiring in-vivo information from reflected echoes of elastic waves irradiated on a living body,
Receiving a reflected echo of a pulse wave applied to the living body, and obtaining a received signal corresponding to the pulse wave;
Synthesizing a plurality of reference signals using a plurality of different interpolation rates, and creating a plurality of calculation reference signals corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates;
Flattening the frequency spectrum of the received signal using each of the plurality of calculation reference signals to create a plurality of flattened signals;
A frequency domain interferometer method and a frequency averaging method are applied to each of the plurality of flattened signals, and a plurality of power distributions in the depth direction in the living body corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates are obtained. Calculating step,
A biological information processing method comprising: determining a power distribution used for acquiring information in the living body based on a plurality of power distributions corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to accurately flatten the frequency spectrum of a received signal by using an appropriate calculation reference signal in consideration of a target frequency characteristic. As a result, the spatial resolution can be dramatically improved as compared with the conventional case.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the frequency averaging method. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the biological information processing apparatus (ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus) according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining processing in the adaptive signal processing system. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining processing in the reference signal synthesis block. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an experimental setup. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a received waveform. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a reference signal and a reference signal for calculation when the interpolation rate is changed. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a power distribution when the interpolation rate is changed. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a rate of change with respect to the interpolation rate of the peak position of the maximum value of the power distribution. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating power distributions with different interpolation rates. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating the power half-value width of the maximum value of the power distribution. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating power distributions with different interpolation rates. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a power distribution obtained by combining power distributions having different interpolation rates.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. In principle, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

  A feature of the present invention is that a received signal is flattened (also referred to as whitening) using a reference signal that takes into account a target frequency characteristic. The reference signal in the present invention means a signal waveform used when processing such as FDI method and Capon method is performed.

(Configuration of biological information processing apparatus)
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of the biological information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

This biological information processing apparatus irradiates a living body with an elastic wave (for example, ultrasonic wave) pulse, receives an echo reflected by a target in the living body, and obtains information (for example, a tomographic image) in the living body from the obtained reception signal. It is a system for obtaining. This apparatus is also called an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The biological information processing apparatus of this embodiment includes a transmission circuit system 003, a system control unit 004, a reception circuit system 005, a reception signal processing system 006, an adaptive signal processing system 007, a reference signal synthesis block 008, a processing result selection block 009, An image processing system 010 is provided. An ultrasonic probe 001 having a plurality of transducers 002 and an image display device 011 are connected to the biological information processing apparatus.

  Here, the reception circuit system 005 and the reception signal processing system 006 constitute a reception unit that receives a reflection echo of a transmission pulse wave and acquires a reception signal corresponding to the pulse wave. The reference signal synthesis block 008 constitutes a reference signal synthesis unit that synthesizes a plurality of reference signals using different interpolation rates and creates a plurality of calculation reference signals corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates. The adaptive signal processing system 007 performs a whitening process using a reference signal for calculation, and calculates a power distribution in the depth direction in the living body by a frequency domain interferometer method (FDI method) and a frequency averaging method Configure. The processing result selection block 009 constitutes a power distribution determining unit that determines a power distribution used for acquiring in-vivo information based on a plurality of power distributions having different interpolation rates.

(Main signal flow of biological information processing equipment)
When the position (transmission focus) for transmitting an ultrasonic wave is set, the setting information is sent from the system control unit 004 to the transmission circuit system 003. The transmission circuit system 003 determines a time delay and intensity based on the information, and then transmits an electric signal for driving the plurality of transducers 002 in the ultrasonic probe 001. This electric signal is converted into displacement in the vibrator 002 and propagates as an ultrasonic wave in the subject. The ultrasonic wave transmitted in this way returns to the vibrator 002 as an ultrasonic signal scattered and reflected by the acoustic properties in the subject. The plurality of vibrators 002 operate as ultrasonic-electric conversion elements, whereby the ultrasonic signal is converted into a plurality of received electric signals.

  The plurality of received electrical signals are input to the receiving circuit system 005. The reception circuit system 005 adjusts the time delay according to the reception position in accordance with the information given from the system control unit 004. After such adjustment, the received electrical signal is input to the received signal processing system 006. The received signal processing system 006 adds the input signals to calculate a reflected waveform corresponding to the position in the depth direction, and outputs the reflected waveform to the adaptive signal processing system 007 as an amplitude signal arranged in time series.

  Processing in the adaptive signal processing system 007 will be described in detail later. The adaptive signal processing system 007 does not acquire a simple envelope, but applies the FDI method and the Capon method using a plurality of calculation reference signals input from the reference signal synthesis block 008. The adaptive signal processing system 007 outputs to the processing result selection block 009 the power distribution in the depth direction, that is, the time direction corresponding to the plurality of calculation reference signals. The processing result selection block 009 selects an optimal one of the input power distributions (combines a plurality of selected power distributions as necessary), and outputs the result to the image processing system 010. The image processing system 010 performs various image processing such as rearrangement, smoothing, and edge enhancement according to the scan area, and then transmits luminance data to the image display device 011. Finally, an image is displayed on the image display device 011.

によって、ホワイトニングされ、周波数スペクトルが平坦化された信号である修正相関Ｈ_ｗｈｉ（ω）が算出できる（Ｓ０６）。ただし、ηは雑音電力である。 (Processing of adaptive signal processing system)
Next, processing in the adaptive signal processing system 007 will be described with reference to FIG. The adaptive signal processing system 007 extracts a signal for the time to be processed at one time from the input signal input from the reception signal processing system 006, that is, a signal corresponding to the processing range (S01). Thereafter, the adaptive signal processing system 007 calculates a cross-correlation with a plurality of calculation reference signals input from the reference signal synthesis block 008 (S02). Here, the processing for one type of the plurality of calculation reference signals is exemplarily shown, but the same processing is actually performed on the plurality of input calculation reference signals. A correlation H (ω) for each frequency is obtained by Fourier transforming the cross-correlation (S03, S04). Next, the adaptive signal processing system 007 performs whitening processing using the calculation reference signal (S05). If the reference signal is g (t) and its Fourier transform is G (ω),

Thus, the corrected correlation H _whi (ω), which is a _whitened signal with a flattened frequency spectrum, can be calculated (S06). Where η is noise power.

Next, the adaptive signal processing system 007 applies a frequency domain interferometer method and a frequency averaging method to the flattened signal. That is, first, the adaptive signal processing system 007 forms a correlation matrix R having i and j components that can be expressed by the following equation (S07).

  Next, the adaptive signal processing system 007 calculates the partial correlation matrix R ′ using the frequency averaging method (S08, S09).

ここでＣは注目深さｒに対する拘束ベクトルであり、ｋ_ｎはｎ番目の周波数に対応する波数である。 The adaptive signal processing system 007 estimates the power distribution P (r) in the depth direction using the partial correlation matrix R ′ thus obtained (S10).

Where C is the constraint vector for target depth r, k _n is the wave number corresponding to n-th frequency.

Through the above processing, a plurality of power distributions in the depth direction corresponding to the plurality of calculation reference signals are calculated. Since the estimated power between the ranges can be connected more smoothly, it is desirable that the next processing range partially overlaps the processing range extracted once.

(Processing of reference signal synthesis block)
Next, processing in the reference signal synthesis block 008 will be described with reference to FIG. Here, an example in which a calculation reference signal is created by interpolating (combining) two types of reference signals f ₁ (t) and f ₂ (t) will be described. The reference signal used for creating the calculation reference signal is stored in advance in a memory in the apparatus.

First, the reference signal synthesis block 008 aligns the powers of the reference signals f ₁ (t) and f ₂ (t) (S20). Next, the reference signal synthesis block 008 performs Fourier transform on the two types of reference signals to obtain the phases φ ₁ (f) and φ ₂ (f) (S21). The reference signal synthesis block 008 searches for a _opt that minimizes Σ (φ ′ (f)) ² when φ ′ (f) = φ (f) −af with respect to each reference signal. The reference signal synthesis block 008 flattens the phase by obtaining φ ′ (f) of the standard signal in each a _opt (S22).

ここでＲＥＦ_１（ｆ）、ＲＥＦ_２（ｆ）はそれぞれ電力補正、位相補正後のｆ_１（ｔ）、ｆ_２（ｔ）の周波数成分である。 Next, the reference signal synthesis block 008 interpolates the amplitude and phase using a predetermined interpolation rate (also referred to as interpolation coefficient) α, and calculates synthesized REF ₃ (f) as follows ( S23). The interpolation rate α is an arbitrary value that satisfies 0 ≦ α ≦ 1.

Here, REF ₁ (f) and REF ₂ (f) are frequency components of f ₁ (t) and f ₂ (t) after power correction and phase correction, respectively.

Finally, the reference signal synthesis block 008 obtains the waveform of the reference signal for calculation by performing inverse Fourier transform on REF ₃ (f) (S24). In this case, it is desirable to perform amplitude correction so that the signal power becomes constant.

  The reference signal synthesis block 008 obtains a plurality of calculation reference signals corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates α by changing the interpolation rate α, and outputs them to the adaptive signal processing system 007. The value of the interpolation rate α and the change step can be set as appropriate.

  Although two types of reference signals are described here, the present invention is not limited to only two types of reference signals. The reference signal synthesis block 008 can also generate a calculation reference signal using more than two types of reference signals. In this case, the interpolation rate serves as a weight for each reference signal. Thus, when the calculation reference signal is generated using a large number of reference signals, it is possible to deal with observation objects having more various frequency characteristics.

  In addition, based on information about the observation object input separately, the reference signal synthesis block 008 extracts only several kinds of reference signals that are considered necessary from many reference signals, and uses them for reference for calculation. It is also possible to generate a signal. In this case, a more accurate calculation reference signal can be generated for the observation object, and the observation object can be further selectively increased in resolution.

  Further, in consideration of the occurrence of frequency-dependent attenuation along with the propagation of the ultrasonic wave, the reference signal synthesis block 008 adds the attenuation effect to the reference signal that already has the attenuation effect, and then the calculation reference signal. Can also be generated. As a result, a reference signal in the depth direction can be generated without having a large number of reference signals corresponding to all the depths in the apparatus, and the memory scale in the apparatus can be reduced.

(Processing of processing result selection block)
Next, the operation in the processing result selection block 009 will be described. The processing result selection block 009 receives a plurality of power distributions (power estimation results) calculated using a plurality of types of calculation reference signals having different interpolation rates in the adaptive signal processing system 007. From these, the estimated power result using the optimum interpolation rate for each depth is selected. In order to determine the optimum interpolation rate, for example, the half-value width of the portion including the maximum value of the power distribution is selected by selecting the place where the change in the position of the maximum value of the power distribution when the interpolation rate is changed is the smallest. It is possible to use a technique such as selecting a place where the minimum value is obtained.

As described above, the biological information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment uses the calculation reference signal synthesized by interpolation, performs whitening with the calculation reference signal, and further obtains an optimum interpolation rate for each depth. It has features such as using the power estimation result used. As a result, the frequency spectrum of the received signal can be flattened with high accuracy, and the spatial resolution in the depth direction can be dramatically improved as compared with the prior art.

(Experimental example)
Hereafter, the effect of the present invention will be described using specific experimental examples.

  FIG. 5 shows the setup used in the experiment. The target is a polyethylene sheet 50 having a thickness of 0.05 mm fixed on an acrylic plate 51 with ultrasonic jelly. The acrylic plate 51 and the polyethylene sheet 50 were placed in water. By fixing the polyethylene sheet 50 on the acrylic plate 51 without being fixed in water, the frequency characteristics of the reflected first wave and the second wave are different. The processing apparatus 61 having the transducer 60 receives echoes composed of scattered waves from the front and back surfaces of the polyethylene sheet 50 and separates the received signal into two waves by the FDI method to which the Capon method is applied. The thickness of was estimated. As the reference signal, two kinds of reflected waveforms when the polyethylene plate and the acrylic plate 51 were placed alone in water were used. From here, the interface between water and the polyethylene sheet 50 is referred to as “target 1”, and the interface between the polyethylene sheet 50 and the acrylic plate 51 is referred to as “target 2”, and attention is paid to whether these interfaces can be estimated.

  FIG. 6 shows an actual received waveform obtained by the setup of FIG.

  FIG. 7 shows a calculation reference signal obtained by changing the interpolation rate α. FIG. 7 shows waveforms of four types of calculation reference signals with interpolation rates α = 0, 0.3, 0.7, and 1.0. The waveform of the reference signal for calculation coincides with the reflection waveform of the single polyethylene plate when α is 0, and coincides with the reflection waveform of the single acrylic plate when α is 1.

  FIG. 8 maps the results of estimated power calculated by applying the FDI method and the Capon method to the received signal while changing the interpolation rate α. The horizontal axis indicates the distance in the depth direction, and the vertical axis indicates the interpolation rate. It can be seen that the peak position of the estimated power and the half-value width in the depth direction change by changing the interpolation rate, that is, by changing the calculation reference signal. For example, when the interpolation rate α is about 0 to 0.1, the boundary surface between water and the polyethylene sheet (target 1) and the boundary surface between the polyethylene sheet and the acrylic plate (target 2) can be discriminated. Not. This is because the calculation reference signal generated with an interpolation rate in this range is different from the frequency spectrum of the actual reflected waveform, and the frequency spectrum of the reflected waveform from each interface cannot be flattened with high accuracy. Is shown.

  Next, two types of methods for determining the optimum interpolation rate for each depth will be described.

  The first is a technique using the rate of change of the peak position of the maximum value of the power distribution. FIG. 9 is a plot of the rate of change of the peak position of the estimated maximum value of the power distribution with respect to the interpolation rate. The change rates of the maximum values of the targets 1 and 2 were minimum at α = 0.81 and α = 0.74, respectively. Therefore, the optimum values of the interpolation rate in the targets 1 and 2 were determined to be α1 = 0.81 and α2 = 0.74, respectively. FIG. 10 shows the result of distance estimation by the FDI method using the interpolation waveform of each interpolation rate as a calculation reference signal. As a comparative example, a result of distance estimation using an echo from an acrylic plate and a polyethylene plate alone as a reference signal, and a result of signal processing for obtaining an envelope used in a general ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus (denoted as Envelop) Show. When the interpolation rate α is 0 or 1, that is, when a reflected waveform from a simple acrylic plate and polyethylene sheet is used as it is as a reference signal, the targets 1 and 2 cannot be separated or the power corresponding to the target 1 is almost estimated. You can see that it was not done. However, when α is 0.81 or 0.74, it can be seen that the two layers can be separated. Furthermore, it can be confirmed that the method using the envelope does not separate the two layers.

  Another method is a method using the half-value width of the maximum value of the estimated power. FIG. 11 plots the half-value width of each target of the distance estimation result obtained by the FDI method obtained at each interpolation rate in order to emphasize the distance resolution. At this time, the half widths of the targets 1 and 2 are minimum at α = 0.81 and α = 0.99, respectively. Therefore, the optimal interpolation rates for the targets 1 and 2 were determined to be α = 0.81 and α = 0.99, respectively. FIG. 12 shows a distance estimation result by the FDI method when an interpolation waveform at each interpolation rate is used as a calculation reference wave. As a comparative example, a result of distance estimation using an echo from an acrylic plate and a polyethylene plate alone as a reference signal, and a result of processing for obtaining an envelope used in a general ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus are shown. Also in this method, it can be separated into two layers, and a result with more emphasis on resolution can be obtained.

  Further, since the optimal interpolation rate is different between the target 1 and the target 2, the optimal interpolation rate is near the respective positions, for example, the interpolation rate α = 0.81 around the target 1 and the target 2 It is desirable to use the estimated power using the interpolation rate α = 0.99 in the vicinity of. That is, an optimum interpolation rate is determined for each of different depths in the living body, and a power distribution corresponding to each interpolation rate is combined to obtain a final estimation result of the power distribution. Power distributions having different interpolation rates can be smoothly synthesized by using an interpolation method such as simple average or geometric average. FIG. 13 shows a result of calculating the power between the target 1 and the target 2 with weighting according to the distance from each target. The line indicated by “interpolation” in FIG. 13 is a result obtained by weighting, and the other lines are the same as those in FIG. It can be seen that the estimated power is smoothly connected between the target 1 and the target 2. If a tomographic image is generated based on such data, an image with less sense of incongruity can be provided.

  As described above, according to the present invention, even when there is an observation object having a different frequency characteristic, it is possible to generate a reference signal for calculation in consideration of the frequency characteristic of the object by synthesizing the reference signal, It is possible to improve the spatial resolution in the depth direction.

001 Ultrasonic probe 002 Transducer 003 Transmission circuit system 004 System control unit 005 Reception circuit system 006 Reception signal processing system 007 Adaptive signal processing system 008 Reference signal synthesis block 009 Processing result selection block 010 Image processing system 011 Image display device 50 Polyethylene Sheet 51 Acrylic plate 60 Transducer 61 Processing device

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for acquiring information in a subject from a reflected wave of a pulsed ultrasonic wave transmitted to the subject and a control method thereof .

Meanwhile, there is a case where a problem arises as a reference signal simply reflected waveform in medical ultrasound. In medical ultrasonic imaging, as described above, broadband signals are transmitted and received, and the frequency characteristics of acoustic impedance and backscattering cross-section cannot be ignored .

An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and a control method thereof that can flatten the frequency spectrum of a received signal with high accuracy and dramatically improve the spatial resolution as compared with the conventional technique. And

A first aspect of the present invention is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for acquiring information in a subject from a reflected wave of a pulse ultrasonic wave transmitted to the subject, a probe that receives the reflected wave and outputs a received signal; A signal processing unit that performs signal processing using a frequency averaging method in combination with adaptive signal processing and frequency domain interferometry based on the received signal, and the signal processing unit includes: An ultrasonic diagnosis characterized by obtaining a flattened signal having a flattened frequency spectrum using a received signal and a reference signal, and performing signal processing using the frequency averaging method using the flattened signal. Device.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for acquiring information in a subject from a reflected wave of a pulse ultrasonic wave transmitted to the subject, a probe that receives the reflected wave and outputs a received signal; A signal processing unit that performs signal processing using a frequency averaging method in combination with adaptive signal processing and frequency domain interferometry based on the received signal, and the signal processing unit includes: In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, whitening processing is performed using a received signal and a reference signal, and signal processing using the frequency averaging method is performed using a signal after the whitening processing.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for controlling an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that acquires information in a subject from a reflected wave of a pulsed ultrasonic wave transmitted to the subject, which is output from a probe that has received the reflected wave. A step of obtaining a received signal, and a signal processing step of performing signal processing based on the received signal and applying frequency averaging to processing combining adaptive signal processing and frequency domain interferometry, In the signal processing step, using the received signal and the reference signal,
A method of controlling an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising: obtaining a flattened signal having a flattened number spectrum and performing signal processing using the frequency averaging method using the flattened signal.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for controlling an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for acquiring information in a subject from a reflected wave of a pulse ultrasonic wave transmitted to the subject, which is output from a probe that has received the reflected wave. A step of obtaining a received signal, and a signal processing step of performing signal processing based on the received signal and applying frequency averaging to processing combining adaptive signal processing and frequency domain interferometry, In the signal processing step, a whitening process is performed using the received signal and the reference signal, and a signal process using the frequency averaging method is performed using the signal after the whitening process. It is a control method of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

Claims (10)

A biological information processing apparatus that acquires in-vivo information from reflected echoes of elastic waves irradiated on a living body,
A receiving unit that receives a reflected echo of a pulse wave applied to the living body and obtains a reception signal corresponding to the pulse wave;
A reference signal synthesis unit that synthesizes a plurality of reference signals at a predetermined interpolation rate and creates a reference signal for calculation;
A whitening process is performed on the received signal using the calculation reference signal created by the reference signal synthesis unit, and a frequency domain interferometry method and a frequency average are performed on the received signal subjected to the whitening process. Applying a method to calculate a power distribution in the depth direction in the living body; and
A living body information comprising: a power distribution determining unit that determines a power distribution used for acquiring information in the living body based on a plurality of power distributions respectively calculated by changing the interpolation rate. Processing equipment.   The power distribution determination unit selects an interpolation rate that minimizes the rate of change with respect to the interpolation rate at the position of the maximum value of the power distribution, and uses the power distribution corresponding to the selected interpolation rate in the living body. The biological information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a power distribution used to acquire information is created.   The power distribution determination unit selects an interpolation rate that minimizes the half-value width of the portion including the maximum value of the power distribution, and acquires the in-vivo information using the power distribution corresponding to the selected interpolation rate The biological information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an electric power distribution used for the operation is created.   The power distribution determination unit selects different interpolation rates for a plurality of depths in the living body, and combines a plurality of power distributions corresponding to the selected plurality of interpolation rates. The biological information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a power distribution used for acquiring information is created. A biological information processing method for acquiring in-vivo information from reflected echoes of elastic waves irradiated on a living body,
Receiving a reflected echo of a pulse wave applied to the living body, and obtaining a received signal corresponding to the pulse wave;
A step of synthesizing a plurality of reference signals at a predetermined interpolation rate to create a calculation reference signal,
Performing a whitening process on the received signal using the calculation reference signal;
Applying a frequency domain interferometer method and a frequency averaging method to the received signal subjected to the whitening process to calculate a power distribution in the depth direction in the living body;
Determining a power distribution to be used for acquiring information in the living body based on a plurality of power distributions calculated by changing the interpolation rate,
A biological information processing method characterized by comprising:   The power distribution used to select the interpolation rate that minimizes the rate of change with respect to the interpolation rate at the position of the maximum value of the power distribution, and to use the power distribution corresponding to the selected interpolation rate to acquire information in the living body The biological information processing method according to claim 5, wherein:   An interpolation rate that minimizes the half-value width of the portion including the maximum value of the power distribution is selected, and a power distribution used for acquiring information in the living body is created using the power distribution corresponding to the selected interpolation rate. The biological information processing method according to claim 5. A power distribution used for acquiring information in the living body by selecting different interpolation rates for a plurality of depths in the living body and combining a plurality of power distributions corresponding to the selected plurality of interpolation rates. The biological information processing method according to claim 5, wherein the biological information processing method is created. A biological information processing apparatus that acquires in-vivo information from reflected echoes of elastic waves irradiated on a living body,
A receiving unit that receives a reflected echo of a pulse wave applied to the living body and obtains a reception signal corresponding to the pulse wave;
A reference signal synthesis unit that synthesizes a plurality of reference signals using a plurality of different interpolation rates, and creates a plurality of calculation reference signals corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates;
The frequency spectrum of the received signal is flattened using each of the plurality of calculation reference signals, and a frequency domain interferometer method and a frequency average method are applied to each of the plurality of flattened signals. A signal processing unit that calculates a plurality of power distributions in the depth direction in the living body corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates;
A biological information processing apparatus, comprising: a power distribution determining unit that determines a power distribution used for acquiring information in the living body based on a plurality of power distributions corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates. A biological information processing method for acquiring in-vivo information from reflected echoes of elastic waves irradiated on a living body,
Receiving a reflected echo of a pulse wave applied to the living body, and obtaining a received signal corresponding to the pulse wave;
Synthesizing a plurality of reference signals using a plurality of different interpolation rates, and creating a plurality of calculation reference signals corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates;
Flattening the frequency spectrum of the received signal using each of the plurality of calculation reference signals to create a plurality of flattened signals;
A frequency domain interferometer method and a frequency averaging method are applied to each of the plurality of flattened signals, and a plurality of power distributions in the depth direction in the living body corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates are obtained. Calculating step,
A biological information processing method comprising: determining a power distribution used for acquiring information in the living body based on a plurality of power distributions corresponding to the plurality of interpolation rates.

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