JP3069929B2 - 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 for obtaining a tomographic image of a diagnostic site of a subject by using ultrasonic waves, and more particularly, to an apparatus for detecting occurrence of arrhythmia in a moving site such as a blood vessel or a heart in the subject. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of automatically detecting and immediately observing dynamics before and after occurrence of an arrhythmia.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of this kind is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 0, ultrasonic transmitting / receiving means (1, 2) for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a subject, a tomographic image in a subject including a moving tissue by digitizing a reflected echo signal from the ultrasonic transmitting / receiving means A cine memory unit (3, 4) for sequentially recording data in chronological order, and a scan converter (5) for writing digital signals from the cine memory unit for one scanning line or a plurality of scanning lines of an ultrasonic beam to form image data. ), A biological signal detecting unit (6) for detecting a biological wave of the subject to generate a biological signal and transmitting the biological signal to the cine memory unit, and capturing and converting the image data output from the scan converter into an analog image. An image display means (7, 8) for displaying as an image and a control section (9) for controlling the operation of each of the above-mentioned components are provided. In addition,
In FIG. 10, a biological information memory 1 that records a biological signal output from the biological signal detecting unit 6 and sends the biological signal to the scan converter 5 at a stage subsequent to the biological signal detecting unit 6.
0 is provided.

[0003] The biological signal detector 6 detects an electrocardiographic waveform, a heart sound waveform or a pulse wave signal via an electrocardiographic electrode 11 which is in contact with the hand or foot of the subject. By the processing of the scan converter 10 and the information of the waveform, the information of the waveform and the signal is displayed on the screen of the image display 8 in real time. Here, for example, regarding the electrocardiogram waveform, as shown in FIG. 11, the heartbeat waveforms W ₁ , W ₂ , W ₃ ,... Waveform Z of arrhythmia due to premature contraction
May occur.

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, even though an electrocardiographic waveform as shown in FIG. Did not have the function of detecting which of them was the waveform Z of the abnormal ventricular extrasystole arrhythmia. Therefore, conventionally, the arrhythmia waveform Z is constantly monitored while monitoring the electrocardiogram waveform displayed on the screen of the image display 8.
When a waveform that seems to be found was found, it was necessary to perform a series of manual routines of freezing the image at an appropriate time phase, and then performing cine reproduction and observing the electrocardiographic waveform again. In this case, in order to observe the dynamics of abnormal ventricular extrasystole such as the arrhythmia waveform Z, an experienced physician or the like may monitor the electrocardiographic waveform as shown in FIG. It was necessary to continue taking images, which reduced the diagnostic efficiency. Also, depending on the body position of the subject, respiratory fluctuations, etc., the obtained ultrasonic image may be unclear, so that the above series of manual routines must be repeated many times in order to make an accurate diagnosis. There was something I had to do.

Accordingly, the present invention addresses such a problem and automatically detects occurrence of arrhythmia in a moving part such as a blood vessel or heart in a subject and immediately changes the dynamics before and after the occurrence of the arrhythmia. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that can be observed.

[0006]

To achieve the above object, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention comprises an ultrasonic transmitting / receiving means for transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave to and from a subject, and a reflection from the ultrasonic transmitting / receiving means. A memory unit that digitizes the echo signal and sequentially records a plurality of images of tomographic image data in the subject including the moving tissue in time series, and a biological signal that detects a biological wave signal of the subject in association with the tomographic image data A detection unit;
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: an image display unit that captures image data output from the memory unit, converts the analog data into analog data, and displays the image data as a tomographic image, and a control unit that controls operations of the components. An arrhythmia detection unit that detects the occurrence of arrhythmia in the subject by inputting the biological signal from the An image reproducing means for controlling reproduction of image data is provided.

Further, the image reproducing means synchronizes image data from a time phase which is a predetermined time phase earlier than the time of occurrence of the arrhythmia with a display cycle of the image display means, and performs n times (n (A positive integer), the image data may be sequentially read out at a rate of one time and controlled to perform slow motion display.

Further, when the arrhythmia is detected, the image reproducing means freezes the display of the tomographic image, thereafter reads out the image data by going back a predetermined time phase from the time of occurrence of the arrhythmia, and slows down the image data. The image may be displayed in motion, and control may be performed so as to repeatedly perform a series of operations of releasing the freeze of the image.

[0009]

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus thus configured detects the occurrence of arrhythmia in the subject by inputting the biological signal from the biological signal detector by the arrhythmia detector connected to the biological signal detector. When the arrhythmia occurrence signal is inputted by the image reproducing means, the image data is controlled so as to reproduce the image data from a time phase which is a predetermined time phase earlier than the arrhythmia occurrence time phase. This makes it possible to automatically detect the occurrence of arrhythmia in the subject's heart or the like and to immediately observe the dynamics before and after the occurrence of the arrhythmia.

Further, the image reproducing means synchronizes the image data from a time phase which is a predetermined time phase earlier than the time of occurrence of the arrhythmia with the display cycle of the image display means, and n times (n: By controlling the image data to be sequentially read out once per (positive integer), the dynamics before and after the occurrence of the arrhythmia can be displayed in slow motion. Therefore, the dynamics of arrhythmia can be observed in more detail.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention. This ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus obtains a tomographic image of a diagnostic part of a subject using ultrasonic waves. As shown in the figure, a probe 1, an ultrasonic transmitting / receiving circuit 2, an A / D converter 3, a cine memory 4, a scan converter 5, a biological signal detector 6, a biological information memory 10, a D / A converter 7, an image display 8, and a controller 9, and further detects arrhythmia. A part 12 is provided.

The probe 1 transmits and receives ultrasonic waves to and from a subject by mechanically or electronically scanning a beam. Although not shown, the probe 1 is a source of ultrasonic waves and A plurality of transducers for receiving the reflected echo are built in. The ultrasonic transmission / reception circuit 2 sends a drive pulse to the probe 1 to generate an ultrasonic wave and to process a received reflected echo signal. A known transmission pulsar and a transmission delay circuit for forming an ultrasonic beam transmitted from the probe 1 to the subject, and a reception amplifier for amplifying a reflected echo signal received by each transducer of the probe 1 And a phasing circuit including a wave receiving delay circuit and an adder for forming a received ultrasonic beam by aligning and adding the phases of the received reflected echo signals. The probe 1 and the ultrasonic transmission / reception circuit 2 constitute an ultrasonic transmission / reception unit.
By scanning the ultrasonic beam in a certain direction in the body of the subject, a single tomographic image is obtained.

The A / D converter 3 receives the reflected echo signal from the ultrasonic transmission / reception circuit 2 and converts it into a digital signal. The cine memory 4 receives a digital signal output from the A / D converter 3 and sequentially records a plurality of raw tomographic image data in a subject including a moving tissue in a time series. Become. The A / D converter 3 and the cine memory 4 constitute a cine memory unit.

The scan converter 5 writes digital signals output from the cine memory 4 into a line memory for each scanning line or a plurality of scanning lines of an ultrasonic beam to form image data, and performs D / A conversion described later. To the container 7.

The biological signal detecting section 6 detects a biological wave such as an electrocardiographic waveform of the subject to generate a biological signal, and has an internal configuration as shown in FIG. That is, the electrocardiographic electrode 11 contacted with the subject's hand, foot, etc.
An amplifier 13 for inputting and amplifying the heartbeat signal captured by the
An output signal from the amplifier 13 is input, and an R-wave detection circuit 14 for detecting signals at the R-wave peaks of the heartbeat waveforms W ₁ , W ₂ , W ₃ ,... Shown in FIG. A clock generator 15 for generating the R-wave detection circuit 14
And a counting circuit 16 for inputting the clock signal from the clock generator 15 and measuring the generation interval of the R-wave signal. The biological signal from the biological signal detector 6 is sent to the biological information memory 10 in FIG. 1 and recorded as an electrocardiographic waveform as shown in FIG. 11, for example.

The D / A converter 7 converts the image data output from the scan converter 5 into an analog video signal. Further, the image display 8
Is for inputting an analog video signal from the D / A converter 7 and displaying it as an image according to a television display system, and comprises, for example, a television monitor. And these D /
The A converter 7 and the image display 8 constitute image display means for displaying the image data output from the scan converter 5. The control unit 9 controls the operation of each of the above-described components, and for example, the central processing unit (CP)
U).

Here, in the present invention, an arrhythmia detecting section 12 is provided between the biological signal detecting section 6 and the control section 9. The arrhythmia detector 12 receives the biological signal output from the biological signal detector 6 and detects the occurrence of arrhythmia in the subject.
It is shown as below. That is, the counting circuit 16
A recording circuit 17 for recording a signal S ₁ indicating the current generation interval (that is, heartbeat interval) of the R-wave signal output from the CPU and a signal S ₂ indicating a past average value output from an average value calculator 18 described later; An average calculator 18 for inputting data of the generation interval of the R-wave signal output from the counting circuit 16 to calculate an average value and outputting the calculated average value to the recording circuit 17; The data D ₁ of the present heart beat interval and the average value data D ₂ of the past heart beat intervals are inputted and compared, and when they are different, a comparator 19 which generates a comparison signal S ₃ , consists of the comparison signal S ₃ recognizes the occurrence of arrhythmias by inputting to arrhythmia signal S ₄ and outputs the control circuit 20.

Further, the control unit 9, the enter detected arrhythmia occurrence signal S ₄ to freeze the image after a predetermined time, the freeze from time phases back by a predetermined time phase than the occurrence phase of the arrhythmia The image reproducing means controls the image data to be reproduced until the specified time phase.

Next, the operation of detecting the occurrence of arrhythmia in the arrhythmia detecting section 12 configured as described above will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 11, generally, a heartbeat due to normal contraction has substantially equal intervals t as shown by waveforms W ₁ , W ₂ , W ₃ ,.
It is said that there is a variation of at most about ± 10%. However, the waveform Z of arrhythmia due to ventricular extrasystole
Occur during the normal heartbeat, and the interval t 'is significantly different from t. Therefore, the arrhythmia detection unit 12 according to the present invention determines that the heartbeat is normal when the heartbeat interval is substantially constant, and detects that an arrhythmia has occurred when the heartbeat interval fluctuates significantly.

Hereinafter, a series of operations will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. First, in FIG. 2, enter the signals S ₁ of current heart interval which is output from the counter circuit 16 in the biological signal detecting unit 6, and records in the recording circuit 17 in the arrhythmia detection section 12 (step of FIG. 3 A ). At this time,
In the recording circuit 17, the signal S ₂ of the average value of the heart rate interval is calculated from the signals S ₁ of previously input heartbeat interval is recorded. Next, read the average value data D ₂ past the heartbeat interval and the data D ₁ of the current heart interval from the recording circuit 17, compares both enter the comparator 19, the same as the average value of the heart rate interval It is determined whether or not (step B). here,
If the current heartbeat interval (for example, t 'shown in FIG. 11) is different from the average value of the past heartbeat intervals, it means that an arrhythmia has occurred, and the step B proceeds to the "NO" side. Then
The comparator 19 outputs a comparison signal S _3, the comparison signal S ₃ is inputted to the control circuit 20. Thus, the control circuit 20 recognizes that arrhythmia has occurred, and outputs the arrhythmia signal S ₄ (step C), and sends to the control unit 9 shown in FIG.

On the other hand, if the current heartbeat interval (for example, t shown in FIG. 11) is the same as the average value of the past heartbeat intervals, this is the case of a normal heartbeat, and the step B proceeds to the "YES" side. At this time, the comparison signal S ₃ from the comparator 19 is not output. Then, added to input signals S ₁ of this heartbeat interval average value calculator 18 calculates the latest average value (step D). Then, a signal S ₂ of the average value of the determined heartbeat interval and sent to the recording circuit 17 and recorded (step E). Then, the process returns to step A, and the signal of the heartbeat interval at the next timing is input. Hereinafter, the above procedure may be repeated.

Next, an image display in the case of occurrence of an arrhythmia under the control of the operation of the control section 9 in the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 shows an electrocardiographic waveform (see FIG. 1A) sequentially recorded in the biological information memory 10 shown in FIG. 1, and tomographic image data corresponding to each cardiac phase of the electrocardiographic waveform. State of the cine memory 4 (see FIG.
(f)). FIG. 5 shows a state in which respective data are read from the cine memory 4 and the biological information memory 10 and a tomographic image I and an electrocardiographic waveform are simultaneously displayed on the image display 8. In fact, FIG.
The electrocardiogram waveform shown in (a) includes information indicating a position on the electrocardiogram waveform for one frame of an image, that is, a cardiac phase. In this case, the frame start signal is divided by time for completing one frame of an image when performing cine reproduction.

[0023] First, in the electrocardiographic waveform shown in FIG. 4 (a), when an arrhythmia waveform Z after a successful heartbeat waveform W ₁ that occurs, arrhythmia signal as a reference from the arrhythmia detector 12 shown in FIG. 1 S ₄ is outputted, while being recorded in the biometric information memory 10 via the control unit 9, the cine memory 4
As shown in FIG. 4C, the address Ad _{0 of} the occurrence of the arrhythmia, for example, “52” is designated. In this state, the cine memory 4 continuously records tomographic image data, and FIG.
As shown in (d), the image is frozen at an address Ad ₁ , for example, “59” corresponding to a predetermined time t ₁ set in advance. That is, in the cine memory shown in FIG.
After the occurrence of the arrhythmia, the memory write address is advanced from "52" to "59". The time t ₁ from the occurrence of the arrhythmia to the freeze of the image may be arbitrarily set.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4 (e), the address Ad ₂ corresponding to the predetermined time t ₂ that is set in advance to the front than the arrhythmias occurred, the start of image reproduction back to, for example, "48" specify. The time t _{2 which} goes back before the occurrence of the arrhythmia at this time
Can be specified as follows. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, after the electrocardiographic waveform in which the arrhythmia waveform Z has been generated is temporarily stored in the biological information memory 10 and frozen, image reproduction is started by operating an input device such as a trackball or a joystick (not shown). The trigger marker M indicating the time phase may be appropriately moved on the electrocardiographic waveform, and a position corresponding to the time phase 100 ms before the position of the arrhythmia waveform Z on the electrocardiographic waveform may be designated. Alternatively, the keyboard or other switch, numeric indicating the trace back time t ₂ "10
0 "may be directly input and designated. Further, by comparing with the arrhythmia waveform recorded in the memory in the control unit 9 shown in FIG. The time phase may be calculated and designated.

Next, with the address Ad ₁ image freeze after the specified data record as said the address Ad ₂ of the start of the designated image reproduction as described above, in FIG. 4 (f) as shown, to reproduce an image only during the time t ₃ for example in slow motion. Therefore, for example, the address “4” of the cine memory 4
Images are reproduced from "8" to "59", whereby the dynamics before and after the occurrence of the arrhythmia can be observed, for example, by slow motion display.
Continuing to play to the last address Ad ₁ which records the tomographic image data after the occurrence of arrhythmias in, as shown in FIG. 4 (f), and the end address Ad ₃ image reproduction the address of the image in the End address Ad ₃ Is released and returns to the original display state.

Next, the overall operation of image display in the case of occurrence of the above arrhythmia will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the control unit 9 shown in FIG.
Backward from arrhythmia shown in (e) by a predetermined time phase t ₂ specifies the address Ad ₂ to the image playback (Step 6). Next, in this state, the freeze executed in the previous image diagnosis or the like is released (step), and for example, the pulsation state of the heart of the subject is observed. At this time, the ultrasonic signals collected by the probe 1 and the ultrasonic transmitting / receiving circuit 2 shown in FIG. 1 are sequentially recorded as tomographic image data in the cine memory 4 via the A / D converter 3 (step).
After a certain period of time, it will be updated with new data. At the same time, the arrhythmia detection operation of the arrhythmia detection unit 12 shown in FIG. 3 is progressing, and the control unit 9 receives a signal from the arrhythmia detection unit 12 and determines whether or not an arrhythmia has occurred. Is determined (step).

[0027] Arrhythmia occurrence signal S ₄ from the arrhythmia detector 12 with respect to the control unit 9 is input, it determines that arrhythmia has occurred, step proceeds to the "YES" side. Then
The tomographic image data is continuously recorded from the time when the arrhythmia occurs, and the image is frozen after a predetermined time phase (step). Next, the image is reproduced, for example, in slow motion from the time when the image is frozen to the time retroactive from the occurrence of the arrhythmia specified in the step (step). Then, when this image reproduction progresses and reaches the time phase frozen in the above step, the image reproduction ends, the process returns to the step, the frozen state is released, and the original display state is returned.

On the other hand, when the arrhythmia signal S ₄ from the arrhythmia detector 12 with respect to the control unit 9 does not enter, it is determined that the arrhythmia has not occurred, step proceeds to "NO" side. Then, the process returns to the step, and the tomographic image data is sequentially recorded in the cine memory 4 as it is. Hereinafter, the above procedure may be repeated.

The operation of reproducing an image when an arrhythmia occurs as described above is as follows.
A case where slow motion display is performed on the screen of the image display 8 will be described. First, it is assumed that a real-time image is displayed on the image display 8 shown in FIG. 1 until an arrhythmia occurs in the electrocardiographic waveform shown in FIG. Then, when an arrhythmia occurs, the screen temporarily freezes after a time sufficient to complete the cardiac contraction due to the arrhythmia, for example, 400 ms. At this time, the cine memory 4 shown in FIG.
, Images of cardiac contraction due to the arrhythmia are all recorded. The image required for the image diagnosis is from, for example, 100 ms before the occurrence of the arrhythmia to the completion of cardiac contraction due to the arrhythmia. Therefore, the occurrence of arrhythmia
By displaying all the cardiac phase sections from 100 ms before to about 400 ms after the occurrence of the arrhythmia in slow motion images, the dynamics of the arrhythmia can be observed in detail.

Therefore, for example, if the frame rate of the original image is 180 frames / sec, that is, the data of the ultrasonic image of 180 frames per second is stored in the cine memory 4,
The frame rate of the image display 8 composed of a TV monitor is
Since the frame rate is 30 frames / sec, it is necessary to display 6 times slow motion in order to reproduce all the image data obtained as described above. Therefore, in the above case, the image data of the section over about 500 ms before and after the occurrence of the arrhythmia,
Slow motion display is performed over six times the time, that is, about 3 seconds. In this way, for example, after the original image data of 180 frames / sec is reproduced in slow motion display for about 3 seconds, the freeze state of the screen is released. Then, the cine memory 4 continues to record the image data again, and the image display 8 displays the real-time image again.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an internal structure showing a second embodiment of the arrhythmia detecting section according to the present invention. The arrhythmia detector 12 'according to this embodiment is applied to the following cases. That is, some arrhythmias of the electrocardiographic waveform cannot be detected only by the presence or absence of the fluctuation of the heartbeat interval as shown in FIG. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, an abnormal waveform Z 'in which a normal heartbeat and an arrhythmia occur almost simultaneously may appear. In this case, the heart rate interval t from normal heartbeat W ₁ is on the electrocardiographic waveform to abnormal waveform Z 'is a normal, the waveform is significantly different. At this time, in the embodiment shown in FIG.
Is incorrectly determined as a normal heartbeat. Further, in FIG. 8, the although the next heartbeat W ₃ is normal heartbeat, the heart interval due to the influence of the above-mentioned abnormal state has changed with t ", in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 described above, erroneous as arrhythmia In order to eliminate such an erroneous determination, the second embodiment shown in FIG.

In FIG. 7, the arrhythmia detecting section 12 'according to the second embodiment includes a first biological signal memory 2 for recording an electrocardiographic signal output from the amplifier 13 in the biological signal detecting section 6.
A first and second biological signal memory 22; an address circuit 23 for setting a write address or a read address for the first and second biological signal memories 21 and 22; It comprises a waveform signal comparison circuit 24 for comparing the waveforms of the electrocardiographic signals read from the first and second biological signal memories 21 and 22, respectively, and a control circuit 20 for controlling the operation of these components.

Next, the operation of detecting the occurrence of an arrhythmia (abnormal waveform Z 'shown in FIG. 8) in the arrhythmia detecting section 12' constructed as described above will be described. First, the biological signal detector 6
The electrocardiographic signal output from the amplifier 13 is input to the R-wave detecting circuit 14 to detect the R-wave time phase on the electrocardiographic waveform, and to store the first and second biological signal memories 21 and 22. And recorded alternately for each contraction phase of each heartbeat. At this time, the addresses in the first and second biological signal memories 21 and 22 are recorded in the control circuit 20 by the signal from the R-wave detection circuit 14.

Next, the electrocardiographic waveform of a certain time phase recorded in the first biological signal memory 21 and the electrocardiographic waveform of the next time phase recorded in the second biological signal memory 22 are The signals are sequentially read out with the R-wave time phases matched by the control circuit 20 and input to the waveform signal comparison circuit 24. Then, the waveform signal comparison circuit 24 compares the two preceding and succeeding waveforms, and when the two waveform data are substantially the same, determines that the heartbeat is normal, and sends a signal to that effect to the control circuit 20. The control circuit 20 then continues normal data collection. On the other hand, by the above comparison, if the two waveform data differs greatly determined that the occurrence of arrhythmia, and outputs the arrhythmia signal S _4, and sends to the control unit 9 shown in FIG.

Hereinafter, a series of operations will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. First, in FIG. 7, the first and second biological signal memories 2 in the arrhythmia detector 12 'are shown.
Electrocardiographic waveforms are alternately recorded in 1 and 22. Here, at a certain timing, the second biological signal memory 2
The electrocardiographic waveform of a certain phase is recorded in Step 2 (Step A in FIG. 9). At the same time, the electrocardiographic waveform one heartbeat before is read out from the first biological signal memory 21 (step B) and input to the waveform signal comparing circuit 24. Next, the recorded current electrocardiographic waveform is read out from the second biological signal memory 22 and input to the waveform signal comparing circuit 24, and the electrocardiographic waveform one heartbeat before is compared with the current electrocardiographic waveform ( Step C). Next, it is determined whether or not the two electrocardiographic waveforms are different (step D). Here, if the two electrocardiographic waveforms are substantially the same, the process proceeds to the “NO” side, and is processed as a normal heartbeat (step E).

On the other hand, if the two electrocardiographic waveforms are significantly different, step D proceeds to the “YES” side and enters the next step F. In this step F, it is determined whether or not the heartbeat interval between the electrocardiogram waveform one heartbeat before and the current electrocardiogram waveform is different from the average value. Here, if the heartbeat interval is substantially the same as the average value, the process proceeds to the “NO” side, and processing is performed as an overlap between the normal heartbeat and the arrhythmia (step G). On the other hand, the heartbeat interval may differ from the mean value, "YES" the flow proceeds to the side, and outputs the arrhythmia signal S ₄ (step H), and sends to the control unit 9 shown in FIG. The overall operation of image display in the case of occurrence of arrhythmia by the operation control of the control unit 9 is shown in FIG.
Flows according to the procedure of the flowchart shown in FIG.

Although FIG. 1 shows an example in which the biological information memory 10 is provided in addition to the cine memory 4, the present invention is not limited to this.
The biological signal from the biological signal detector 6 may be recorded in a part of the cine memory 4. In addition, on the screen of the image display 8, the area may be divided into two, and an image of real time display may be displayed on one side and an image of slow motion display may be displayed on the other side in parallel. Further, the present invention is a super-system of a method of calculating a difference between two images having different time phases in a tomographic image collected in a time series and extracting and displaying a motion component of a moving part or the like of a subject. The present invention can also be applied to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

[0038]

The present invention has been configured as described above.
An arrhythmia detection unit connected to the biological signal detection unit inputs a biological signal from the biological signal detection unit to detect occurrence of an arrhythmia in the subject, and the image reproduction unit inputs the detected arrhythmia occurrence signal. Thus, image data can be reproduced from a time phase that has been advanced by a predetermined time phase from the time when the arrhythmia occurred. This makes it possible to automatically detect the occurrence of arrhythmia in the subject's heart or the like and to immediately observe the dynamics before and after the occurrence of the arrhythmia. Therefore, it is not necessary for an experienced doctor or the like to continue monitoring for a long time as in the related art, and the diagnosis efficiency can be improved.

Further, the image reproducing means synchronizes the image data from the time phase which is a predetermined time phase earlier than the time of occurrence of the arrhythmia with the display cycle of the image display means, and performs n times of the display cycle (n: By controlling the image data to be sequentially read out once per (positive integer), the dynamics before and after the occurrence of the arrhythmia can be displayed in slow motion. Therefore, the dynamics of arrhythmia can be observed in more detail.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a biological signal detection unit and an arrhythmia detection unit;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of detecting arrhythmia occurrence in the arrhythmia detection unit;

FIG. 4 is a timing chart for explaining an image display operation in the case of occurrence of arrhythmia by operation control of a control unit;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of specifying a time going back from the occurrence of an arrhythmia;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the overall operation of image display when an arrhythmia occurs,

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an internal configuration showing a second embodiment of the arrhythmia detection unit;

FIG. 8 is a waveform diagram showing an occurrence state of an abnormal waveform in which a normal heartbeat and an arrhythmia occur almost simultaneously;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining an arrhythmia occurrence detection operation in the arrhythmia detection unit according to the second embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus;

FIG. 11 is a waveform chart showing the occurrence state of a normal heartbeat and arrhythmia in an electrocardiographic waveform.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Probe, 2 ... Ultrasonic transmission / reception circuit, 3 ... A / D converter, 4 ... Cine memory, 5 ... Scan converter,
6 ... biological signal detecting unit, 7 ... D / A converter, 8 ... image display, 9 ... control unit, 12, 12 '... arrhythmia detection unit, S ₁ ... signal indicating cardiac interval, S ₄ ... arrhythmia signal .

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Akira Sasaki 2-1 Shinjyuyo, Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture Inside the Kashiwa Branch Plant, Hitachi Medical Corporation Osaka Plant (72) Inventor Toshio Ogawa 2-1 Shinjyuyo, Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture Hitachi Medical Research Institute, Inc. (72) Inventor Toshihiko Kawano 2-1 Shinjyuyo, Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture Hitachi Medical Corporation Osaka Plant Kashiwa Branch Plant (56) References JP-A-3-191950 (JP, A) JP-A-3-55050 (JP, A) JP-A-3-41938 (JP, A) JP-A-2-161935 (JP, A) JP-A-1-181852 (JP, A) JP-A-3 -9735 (JP, A) JP-A-2-63447 (JP, A) JP-A-55-86446 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A61B 8/14 A61B 5/0452

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. An ultrasonic transmitting / receiving means for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a subject, and digitizing a reflected echo signal from the ultrasonic transmitting / receiving means to sequentially sequence tomographic image data in the subject including a moving tissue in time series. A memory unit for recording a plurality of images, a biological signal detection unit for detecting a biological wave signal of the subject in association with the tomographic image data, and a tomographic image obtained by capturing and converting the image data output from the memory unit into an analog signal Image display means to display as, and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having a control unit for controlling the operation of each of the above components,
An arrhythmia detection unit that receives a biological signal from the biological signal detection unit and detects the occurrence of arrhythmia in the subject, and inputs the detected arrhythmia occurrence signal and goes back by a predetermined time phase from the occurrence phase of the arrhythmia. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising an image reproducing means for controlling reproduction of image data from a time phase. 2. The image reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein the image data from a time phase which is earlier than the time when the arrhythmia occurred by a predetermined time phase is synchronized with a display cycle of the image display means, and the image data is displayed n times (n 2. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein image data is sequentially read out at a rate of once per (integer integer) and controlled to perform slow motion display. 3. The image reproducing means, when detecting the arrhythmia, freezes the display of the tomographic image, thereafter reads out image data by going back a predetermined time phase from the time of occurrence of the arrhythmia, and slows down the image data. 3. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a control is performed so that a series of operations of displaying an image in motion and releasing the freeze of the image are repeated.