JP2854649B2 - Ultrasound diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention transmits and receives an ultrasonic wave from an ultrasonic probe to a subject, detects an echo signal obtained by the transmission and reception, and sets a TV. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that scans and displays ultrasonic diagnostic information, and more particularly to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that has a multi-screen format display function of dividing and displaying a screen of a display device.

(Prior Art) In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, an ultrasonic tomographic image is obtained as follows. In other words, in the case of a linear electronic scan, an array type ultrasonic probe having a plurality of ultrasonic transducers arranged in parallel is used.
The unit of the ultrasonic transducer is excited to transmit an ultrasonic beam. For example, a method is used in which the transmission point of an ultrasonic beam is electronically shifted by sequentially exciting the position of an element while sequentially shifting the pitch by one vibrator so as to change sequentially. .

And so that the ultrasonic beam is focused as a beam
The excitation timing of the ultrasonic transducer to be excited is shifted between the one located at the center of the beam and the one located at the side. The reflected ultrasonic waves are focused by utilizing the phase difference between the generated sound waves of the ultrasonic transducer generated by this. Then, the reflected ultrasonic wave is received by the same oscillator as the excited oscillator, converted into an electric signal, and echo information by each transmitted / received wave is displayed as a tomographic image on a monitor or the like.

On the other hand, in the case of a sector scan, the excitation timing of each transducer is set so that the transmission direction of the ultrasound beam is sequentially changed into a sector shape for each pulse of the ultrasound beam for one unit of the ultrasound transducer group to be excited. Is changed according to a desired direction. That is, according to this sector scan,
Transmission pulses having different delay times t1, t2... Tn are input from the pulse generator to each transducer of the probe via the transmission delay circuit and the pulsar, and are delayed from each transducer by the delay times t1, t2. Ultrasonic waves are transmitted. That is, the wavefronts of these ultrasonic waves are synthesized, and an ultrasonic beam is transmitted toward the subject. When the ultrasonic beam hits the object, the ultrasonic beam is reflected and an echo signal is applied to each transducer of the probe for a delay time t.
Received at 1, t2 ... tn.

Then, this echo signal is amplified, and the delay times t1, t
2 ... tn are given. Thus, these delayed signals are added, and a tomographic image of the subject is obtained on the monitor.

In addition to the linear and sector scans described above, there is also a mechanical scan in which a transducer is attached to a scanning mechanism and an ultrasonic scan is performed by moving the scanning mechanism.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In such an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, the value of a dynamic study has recently become particularly important. For example, displaying a plurality of images on one screen based on time axis information (heartbeat synchronization, load, aging) and a region is very important for diagnosis. As such a device, there is a device having a multi-screen format display function using a large-capacity memory.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of this type of conventional multi-screen format display. In this display, the heartbeat-synchronous loop reproduction is displayed on a 4-split multi-screen, and shows image information before, after, and on the long axis and short axis.

However, in such a display method, there is a problem that the reproduction of the time axis is performed or the use of the load is limited.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of appropriately selecting time axis information and a region and displaying a multi-screen, thereby providing an ultrasonic diagnosis.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention has taken the following means to solve the above problems and achieve the object. That is, the present invention is a means for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves from the ultrasonic probe to the subject, generating an image by detecting the echo signal obtained thereby, the image, and the site, before and after the load and Storage means for storing a tag indicating the presence or absence of heartbeat synchronization in association with one another, setting means for dividing one screen into a plurality of screen parts, and individually setting desired tags for the plurality of screen parts; Control means for reading from the storage means a plurality of images corresponding to tags individually set for the screen portions, and displaying the plurality of images read from the storage means on the corresponding screen portions, respectively. And a display means for performing multi-format display according to (1).

(Action) By taking such means, the following action is exhibited. First, a tag for site, heartbeat synchronization, and time information is attached to the image information, and the tagged image information is stored in the storage unit. Then, when the setting means sets a layout for dividing the screen of the display means to display multiple ultrasonic images, the control means having inputted the layout information displays the layout images on the respective screens laid out by the setting means. The image information to be selected is selected from the storage means based on the tag, and the image information of each of the selected screens is output to the display means. Therefore, the diagnostic site and time axis information are appropriately selected, and the images are arranged on the screen. It can be displayed and can be greatly used for ultrasonic diagnosis.

(Examples) Hereinafter, specific examples of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a view showing details of a memory unit in the apparatus.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is an ultrasonic probe as shown in FIG.
3, a transmission / reception circuit 10, a memory unit 11 having a DSC, an image display circuit 12, a character display circuit 13, these transmission / reception circuits 10, a memory unit 1.
1, a system control unit 14 for controlling an image display circuit 12, a character display circuit 13, an adder 15, and a display 16.

The transmission and reception circuit 10 includes a transmission delay circuit 1, a pulsar 2, a preamplifier 4, a reception delay circuit 5, an adder 6, a B-mode detection circuit 7, a CFM
With eight.

The transmission delay circuit 1 delays a rate pulse for a predetermined time for each channel of the ultrasonic probe 3 described later, and
Output to The pulser 2 receives rate pulses delayed for each channel by the transmission delay circuit 1 and drives the ultrasonic probe 3 with these rate pulses.

The ultrasonic probe 3 is provided with ultrasonic transducers of a plurality of channels. When only the selected channel is driven by the pulsar 2, the ultrasonic probe 3 generates an ultrasonic wave and directs the ultrasonic wave toward a subject (not shown). Transmit.

The ultrasonic waves reflected from the subject are received by the same transducer of the ultrasonic probe 3. Preamplifier 4
Amplifies the received signal to a predetermined level. The reception delay circuit 5 applies a delay time to the reception signal of each channel input from the preamplifier 4. The adder 6 adds and combines the reception signals of the respective channels delayed by the reception delay circuit 5.

The B-mode detection circuit 7 receives the received signal from the adder 6 and stores the B-mode image information (monochrome tomographic image, that is, B / W tomographic image) obtained by performing envelope detection on the received signal.
Output to

The CFM 8 (color flow mapping) has an MTI filter (moving target indicator) and the like, and a plurality of rates (for example, 10
), The phase change is obtained, the average value, variance, and power of the blood flow velocity are calculated, and the color flow mapping image information (hereinafter, referred to as CFM image information) is stored in the memory unit 11. Output.

The memory unit 11 has a DSC (Digital Scan Converter) and an image memory.
Detection signal to obtain a black and white tomographic image from CFM8 to CFM
Image information is input, these data are written to the memory, and a signal obtained by performing scan conversion from ultrasonic scan to TV scan is output to the image display circuit 12.

That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the memory unit 11 includes buffer registers 21 and 25, registers 22 and 28, a multiplexer 23 (hereinafter, referred to as MPX23), and a large-capacity memory 2 as storage means.
4 (hereinafter, referred to as MEM24), an image display memory 26 (hereinafter, referred to as MEM26), and a sequencer 27.

The buffer register 21 stores the B-mode detection circuit 7
B mode image information input from CFM or CFM input from CFM8
The image information is stored. The register 22 describes an image such as a scan mode set by the system control unit 14, which will be described later, a data collection site, heartbeat synchronization, before and after loading, and the like.
TAG (tag) information is stored.

The MPX 23 selects the output of the buffer register 21 or the output of the register 22 as appropriate. The MEM 24 is a large-capacity memory for storing images, and includes an auxiliary storage device such as a disk.

The sequencer 27 as control means inputs tag information from the register 22, and inputs raster information, a sampling clock, and image display format information (layout information) from the system control unit 14 to use the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. And outputs the address and clock information corresponding to the address.
The register 28 stores the tag information in the MEM 24.

The image display circuit 12 stores the image information from the memory unit 11 for display, and outputs the image information to the adder 15. The character display circuit 13 stores the character information and outputs the character information to the adder 15 to display the character. Adder 15
Adds and synthesizes image information and character information.

The display 16 is, for example, a monitor, and displays a tomographic image of the subject, a color flow mapping image in which the direction of the blood flow and the magnitude of the blood flow velocity are color-coded, and also displays characters.

Next, the operation of the embodiment thus configured will be described. At the time of image collection, the tag information written in the register 22 is written into the MEM 24 via the MPX 23 as shown in FIG. The B-mode image information from the B-mode detection circuit 7 and the CFM image information from the CFM 8 are transmitted to the MEM 24 through the MPX 23.
Is written to. That is, one piece of image information written in the MEM 24 is composed of a pair of the tag information and the image information.

The image information written in the MEM 24 is displayed on the display 16 according to the following procedure.

First, the layout information s1 for the multi-screen format is output from the system control unit 14 to the sequencer 27. The layout information s1 is for setting layout information on how to divide and display the monitor screen. For example, the monitor screen is divided into four parts, and before and after the load, the short axis, and the long Set the image information to display the axis.

Next, when the control signal s10 is output from the sequencer 27 to the MEM 24, the tag information in the MEM 24 is read, and the register 2
8 is stored, and then, from the image information of the MEM24, image information having the same tag information as the tag information is selected,
The selected image information is written into the buffer register 25. The image information of the buffer register 25 selected by the address clock signal of the control signal s10 from the sequencer 27 is written to a portion corresponding to the layout information of the MEM 26.

When the image information corresponding to each layout is written in the MEM 26, the content is output to the display image circuit 12. Further, the image information is displayed on the display 16 via the adder 15 as an ultrasonic image in a multi-screen format.

In this way, as shown in FIG. 3, one screen of the display unit 16 is divided into nine parts according to the layout information, and the parts, load (none, front, rear), and heartbeat synchronization designation (none, designation) are displayed on each screen. The image can be displayed side by side by selecting a part such as reproduction (frame advance, loop) and time axis information.

Further, by repeating such an operation for a plurality of screens, a moving image display in a multi-screen format can be performed.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, tags for region, heartbeat synchronization, and time information are attached to image information, and the tagged image information is stored in the MEM 24. Then, the system control unit 14 sets a layout for dividing the screen of the display 16 to display the ultrasonic image in a multi-display manner. Then, the sequencer 27 that entered this layout information
Selects image information to be displayed on each screen laid out by the system control unit 14 based on the tag from the MEM 24, and outputs the image information of each selected screen to the display unit 16. Since the site and time axis information can be appropriately selected, images can be displayed side by side on a screen, and can be used for ultrasonic diagnosis.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. For example, the reference image may be fixed in one screen, and a necessary multi-screen other than the reference image may be changed.
Alternatively, a plurality of layout screens may be provided so that these layout screens can be freely selected. In addition, it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, a tag for site, heartbeat synchronization, and time information is attached to image information, and the tagged image information is stored in a storage unit. Then, when the setting means sets a layout for dividing the screen of the display means to multi-display the ultrasonic image, the control means having inputted the layout information displays the layout image on each screen laid out by the setting means. The image information to be selected is selected from the storage means based on the tag, and the image information of each of the selected screens is output to the display means. Therefore, the diagnostic site and time axis information are appropriately selected, and the images are arranged on the screen. It can be displayed and provided for ultrasonic diagnosis.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of a memory unit in the apparatus, and FIG. 3 is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a multi-screen format display function in a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Transmission delay circuit, 2 ... Pulsar, 3 ... Ultrasonic probe, 4 ... Preamplifier, 5 ... Reception delay circuit, 6 ... Adder, 7 ... B-mode detection circuit, 8 ... CFM, 11: Memory unit, 12: Image display circuit, 13: Character display circuit, 14
…… System control unit, 15 …… Adder, 16 …… Display unit, 2
1,25 ... buffer register, 22,28 ... register, 23 ...
… MPX, 24,26 …… MEM, 27 …… Sequencer.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A means for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave from an ultrasonic probe to a subject and detecting an echo signal obtained thereby to generate an image; and Storage means for storing a tag indicating whether or not there is heartbeat synchronization; storing means for dividing one screen into a plurality of screen parts and setting desired tags individually for the plurality of screen parts; Control means for reading from the storage means a plurality of images corresponding to tags individually set for the screen portions, and displaying the plurality of images read from the storage means on the corresponding screen portions, respectively. And a display means for performing multi-format display according to the above.