JP2801538B2 - Ultrasound diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and more particularly to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having an area calculating function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is used to diagnose a heart disease. An ultrasonic probe is brought into contact with the chest surface, and in that state, ultrasonic waves are transmitted from between the ribs. The reflected wave from the living body is received by the ultrasonic probe, and the intensity of the received signal is modulated, whereby the cross section of the heart is displayed as a two-dimensional tomographic image (B-mode image).

[0003] In a disease such as myocardial infarction, the muscles of the heart partially malfunction, so that a doctor has conventionally performed a heart examination while looking at a tomographic image of the heart.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-317314 proposes a device which can automatically extract the contour of an organ and calculate the area. According to this device, for example, since the area (cross-sectional area) of the inside of the heart (heart cavity) is displayed, it is possible to provide useful information for disease diagnosis.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, since only the area of the entire heart chamber is measured, if a part of the muscle becomes dysfunctional due to myocardial infarction or the like, the abnormal site is not detected. No information is available to identify it.

The localization of the abnormal part requires local observation, but the above-mentioned conventional apparatus cannot meet such a demand.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide diagnostic information for specifying an abnormal site in a myocardium.

[0008]

To achieve the above object, the present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for displaying a tomographic image of a heart, comprising: a tracing means for tracing a heart cavity on the tomographic image; Area dividing means for radially dividing a plurality of areas from a predetermined center point of the heart chamber on an image, area calculating means for calculating a heart chamber area for each area, and display for displaying the heart chamber area Means.

Further, the present invention includes image storage means for storing a tomographic image of at least one heartbeat, wherein the display means displays a change of a heart chamber area in one heartbeat as a graph.

[0010]

According to the above arrangement, the heart chamber is traced by the tracing means, and the heart chamber on the tomographic image is divided into a plurality of areas by the area dividing means. The area calculation means calculates a heart chamber area for each area, and the display means displays the heart chamber area for each area.

Therefore, since the area is calculated for each area instead of performing the area calculation for the entire heart chamber, it is possible to narrow down an abnormal site having a malfunction.

Here, for example, the center of gravity of the heart chamber is used as the predetermined center point serving as a reference point for area division, and the display means displays the change in the heart chamber area in one heartbeat as a graph.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 shows a display example of a tomographic image.

First, the principle of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The probe is positioned so that the cross section of the heart 12 is included in the tomographic image 10 captured by the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic waves. In the present invention, first, the inner surface of the heart 12,
That is, the inner surface 12A of the heart chamber is extracted by a method described later. Then, a plurality of areas are set radially with the center of gravity P of the heart chamber 12B as a center point. In FIG. 2, the area is divided into six areas (I) to (VI).

An area calculation is performed for each of the six divided areas, and a change in the heart chamber area over one heartbeat is investigated to determine which part of the myocardium is abnormal. Becomes possible. That is, in the abnormal part, the movement of the myocardium becomes small, and as a result,
Variability in heart chamber area is reduced.

Next, the overall configuration of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

The probe 20 for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves is used, for example, in contact with the chest to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves. That is, the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the probe 20 toward the body is reflected in the living body, and the reflected wave is received by the probe 20. At that time, a sector-shaped echo data capturing area can be formed by, for example, scanning the ultrasonic beam with a sector.

The signal output from the probe 20 is sent to the transmitting / receiving unit 22. The transmission / reception unit 22 controls the transmission of the ultrasonic wave in the probe 20 and processes the reception signal. The reception signal that has been amplified is transmitted to the image processing unit 24. The image processing unit 24 performs a predetermined process for forming the tomographic image 10 shown in FIG.
The image signal is output to the / D conversion unit 26. A / D converter 2
In step 6, the image signal is A / D converted, and the digitized image signal is stored in the cine memory 30 and the frame memory 32.

The cine memory 30 has at least one
A tomographic image for a heart rate can be stored.
One tomographic image can be stored. On the other hand, the frame memory 32
Is to temporarily store a tomographic image to be displayed on the TV monitor. The DSC 28 including the cine memory 30 and the frame memory 32 also performs coordinate conversion, interpolation processing, and the like.

Therefore, the digitized image signal is once stored in the frame memory 32, read out, and
The video signal is converted into a video signal by the V signal processing unit 34 and finally displayed on the TV monitor 36. At this time, the latest 64 tomographic images are always stored in the cine memory 30 like a ring buffer.

The area measuring section 38 is a control arithmetic section for performing the area measurement shown in FIG. An electrocardiogram signal from an electrocardiograph (not shown) is sent to the area measurement unit 38, and the area measurement unit 38 stores the electrocardiogram signal in the cine memory 3
Send to 0. In the cine memory 30, an electrocardiographic signal is stored together with the tomographic image, whereby it is possible to associate a time phase with each tomographic image.

As will be described later, the area measuring unit 38
It has functions such as boundary extraction, center of gravity identification, area calculation, graph creation, and the like.

Next, the processing of the area measuring unit 38 will be described with reference to FIG.

When echo data is fetched by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, in S101, the area measuring unit 3
The electrocardiographic signal is stored in the cine memory 30 via the control unit 8. Thus, each tomographic image is associated with an electrocardiographic signal.

Next, when the operator makes a predetermined input,
The area measuring unit 38 performs an area calculation described below. That is, in the freeze mode for reading past data, the following processing is sequentially performed from the stored oldest or newest tomographic image. In S102, boundary extraction is performed to identify the heart chamber of the heart in the tomographic image. That is, the heart chamber is automatically traced. This is performed using a known technique.

In S103, the center of gravity is specified for the extracted heart chamber. That is, the center point is specified.

At S104, the area is radially divided from the center into a plurality of areas. Here, the number of areas may be specified by the operator. In that case, it is possible for the diagnostician to specify whether to specify a rough abnormal part or a detailed abnormal part as necessary for diagnosis. Of course, as the number of areas is reduced, the calculation speed is improved accordingly.

In S105, the area is calculated for each area by the area calculator 38. The area is calculated based on the number of pixels belonging to each area.

Then, the calculation of the heart chamber area is sequentially performed on a series of images over one heartbeat.
In, the variation of the area is graphed. This graphing is of course performed for each area.

In S107, a value obtained by multiplying a value obtained by dividing a difference between the maximum area and the minimum area by the maximum area by 100 is calculated. That is, the area variation (shrinkage%) is calculated.

In step S108, the created graph and the calculated contraction degree are displayed, for example, as in a display example 100 shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, the contraction degree of the area (I) and the graph 100 are displayed, but they may be sequentially displayed based on the input by the operator. Alternatively, the graphs may be displayed side by side on a plurality of screens.

As described above, according to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present embodiment, since the area can be calculated for a plurality of divided areas, an abnormal site in the entire myocardium can be specified by the variation value of the area. Becomes possible. Therefore, there is an advantage that the accuracy of heart disease diagnosis can be improved.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the area of the heart cavity can be determined for each area, an abnormal site having cardiac dysfunction can be easily specified, and there is an effect that useful information for diagnosis can be provided.
Also, by graphing the variation of the heart chamber area in one heartbeat, it is possible to grasp the exercise state of each part over time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a tomographic image.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of an area measuring unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 probe 28 DSC 38 area measuring unit

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for displaying a tomographic image of a heart, comprising: a tracing means for tracing a heart chamber on the tomographic image; and a plurality of radial means radiating from a predetermined center point of the heart chamber on the tomographic image. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: an area dividing means for dividing into areas; an area calculating means for calculating a heart chamber area for each of the areas; and a display means for displaying the heart chamber area. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising image storage means for storing a tomographic image of at least one heartbeat, wherein said display means displays a change in a heart chamber area in one heartbeat as a graph. Ultrasound diagnostic device.