JP4473981B2 - Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of displaying in real time changes in color Doppler and power Doppler reflection intensity signals and monochrome image luminance signals when an ultrasonic contrast agent is used.
[0002]
[Prior art]
A conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a probe in which a large number of transducer elements are arranged to form a multi-channel and transmit / receive ultrasonic waves to / from a subject, and an ultrasonic transmission signal is applied to the probe and the probe is transmitted. An ultrasonic transmission / reception circuit that amplifies an ultrasonic reception signal from the child and further applies a predetermined delay to receive focus, and a color / power Doppler calculation for an output signal from the ultrasonic transmission / reception circuit. A power calculation circuit; a monochrome image signal processing circuit that performs monochrome image signal processing on an output signal from the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit; a color / power scanning conversion circuit that converts from ultrasonic scanning to scanning such as a TV monitor; An image scanning conversion circuit, an image display circuit that converts a signal from the scanning conversion circuit into a display signal for an image display such as a TV monitor, and an image display are included.
[0003]
In recent years, the use of ultrasound contrast agents, which are agents that can temporarily enhance ultrasound reflection signals, has increased. It has been found that the use of this contrast agent temporarily improves the sensitivity of color Doppler, power Doppler and black and white images. That is, when a contrast agent is used, the B image and M image of the imaging organ are displayed more clearly on the display device, and in the case of imaging of blood flow by color, the reflection intensity of the blood flow is further increased. I know that. By using the contrast agent in this way, it becomes possible to capture the movement of the organ more clearly. By knowing the movement of the contrast agent in the organ (elapsed time of the bioemission time of the contrast agent), the organ There is a possibility that it can be used as a guideline for judging whether it is working normally or abnormally. Therefore, it has become clinically focused to confirm the progress of the time for the contrast medium to pass through the body.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the prior art, there has been no means for displaying on the image device a graph of the behavior of the contrast agent in the living body, in particular, a graph of the discharge process of the contrast agent from the living body.
[0005]
An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus that measures the passage of the ultrasound contrast agent in the target organ in a quantitative manner in real time and displays the graph.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
To accomplish the above object, the probe (1) for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to a subject a number of oscillator elements are formed on the multi-channel is arranged, the probe (1) Ultra multiplying the reception focus giving amplified further predetermined delay ultrasonic received signal from the probe with providing a wave transmission signal to the ultrasonic transmitting and receiving means (2), wherein from the ultrasonic transmitting and receiving means (2) Color / power calculation means (3) that performs color Doppler and power Doppler calculations on the output signal, and monochrome image signal processing means (4) that performs monochrome image signal processing on the output signal from the ultrasonic transmission / reception means (2) ), Color / power scan conversion means (5) and black-and-white image scan conversion means (6) for converting from ultrasonic scanning to scan of the TV monitor (8), and these color / power scan conversion means (5) and Black and white image scan variation It means an image display means for displaying on the TV monitor (8) as the display signal a signal from the (6) (7), the TV monitor (8) on the displayed region of interest setting means for setting a region of interest to the image and (10), wherein the noise removal unit for removing the ultrasonic device-specific noise signal from 0 gradation of the gradation threshold in the display signals in a region of interest (91), said noise removed the Integration means (92) for obtaining an integrated value obtained by integrating the components of the display signal, and the image display means (7) generates a waveform of the passage of the biological discharge time from the organ of the contrast agent based on the integrated value. Display on the TV monitor (8) in real time.
Further, the image display means (7) uses the signals from the color / power scan conversion means (5) and the black and white image scan conversion means (6) as the display signal and the passage of the biological discharge time from the organ of the contrast medium. The waveform is displayed side by side or overlaid on the TV monitor (8).
[0008]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5, and the same parts as those in FIG. 6 of the prior art are indicated by the same symbols. In FIG. 1, in the embodiment of the present invention, a real-time reflection intensity / luminance signal integrated value detection circuit 9 is provided in parallel with the color / power scan conversion circuit 5 and the monochrome image scan conversion circuit 6. The circuit 9 includes a noise elimination circuit 91, an integration circuit 92, and a memory circuit 93. The input terminals I1 and I2 of the noise elimination circuit 91 are connected to the output terminal 01 of the monochrome image signal processing circuit 4 and the output terminal 02 of the color / power arithmetic circuit 3, respectively. A region of interest designating circuit 10 is provided between the input terminals I1 and I2 and the output terminals 01 and 02. In the circuit 10, when the ultrasonic image 20 as shown in FIG. 2 is displayed on the image display 8, when the region of interest (ROI) 21 is designated by the operator, only the region of interest (ROI) 21 is displayed. This signal is output to the noise elimination circuit 91. In this case, when the monochrome image display (B, M image) is designated by the operator, the monochrome image signal processing circuit 4 operates, and the region of interest (the region of interest ( When a luminance signal of (ROI) 21 is input and display of a blood flow image is specified by an operator, a region of interest (ROM) is output from the output terminal 02 of the color / power calculation circuit 3 via the region of interest specifying circuit 10. ) 21 reflection intensity signal is input to the input terminal I2 of the noise elimination circuit 91. The noise deletion circuit 91 deletes the noise and then outputs the output to the integration circuit 92. The integration circuit 92 integrates it and stores it in the memory circuit 93. The output of the memory circuit 93 is displayed on the image display 8 via the image display circuit 7.
[0009]
Next, the operation will be described. When the operator designates the display of B and M images and determines the region of interest (ROI) 21, the input signal (histogram) shown in FIG. The This input signal represents a histogram of the region of interest (ROI) 21. The horizontal axis represents luminance (for example, 0 to 255 gradations), and the vertical axis represents the frequency of the luminance input signal that enters the region of interest (ROI). Show. The low luminance of the input signal, that is, the signal between the gradation 0 and the C gradation (threshold) is noise unique to the ultrasonic apparatus, and the noise deletion circuit 91 deletes this noise. The integrating circuit 92 integrates the deleted signal and stores the result in the memory circuit 93. The image display circuit 7 reads the contents of the memory circuit 93 and displays the integrated waveform 30 as shown in FIG. 4 on the image display 8.
[0010]
Next, even when the operator designates the display of blood flow, the reflection intensity signal is inputted from the output terminal 02 of the color / power scanning circuit 5 through the region of interest designating circuit 10 to the input terminal I2 of the noise elimination circuit 91. The noise is deleted and integrated, and the integrated waveform 30 in FIG. 4 is displayed. The integrated waveform 30 represents an integrated value of reflection intensity or luminance with respect to time, and a time zone in which the integrated value is rising indicates a state in which the contrast agent is flowing into the organ, and the integrated value is decreasing. The time zone represents the passage of time that the contrast medium is discharged from the organ.
[0011]
Another embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the real-time reflection intensity / luminance signal integral value detection circuit 9 is connected to the output side of the color / power scan conversion circuit 5 and the monochrome image scan conversion circuit 6 via the region of interest designating circuit 10. The reflection intensity signal or the luminance signal of the circuit 6 is integrated in the same manner as in the embodiment of FIG. 1, and the integrated waveform is displayed. The effect is the same as in the embodiment of FIG. Description is omitted.
[0012]
Note that the present invention focuses on measuring the time course of ultrasound contrast agent ejection in vivo, but can also be applied to the observation of the time course of color / power reflection intensity signals and monochrome image luminance signals.
[0013]
As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to measure the passage of the ultrasound contrast agent biological discharge time quantitatively and display the graph in real time.
[0014]
Therefore, for example, a clinically effective data can be obtained by making a standard pattern of the passage of the contrast medium in vivo and comparing it with the pattern of the passage of the contrast medium measured in each case. Can be obtained.
[0015]
Also, if the integrated waveform and the monochrome image or color image are displayed side by side or superimposed, the correspondence between the integrated waveform obtained in real time and the display image becomes clear,
Observation over time is possible.
[0016]
【The invention's effect】
The present invention has an effect of providing an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that measures the passage of an ultrasound contrast agent in a target organ in a quantitative manner in real time and displays the graph.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a waveform diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram for explaining the prior art.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Probe 2 Ultrasonic wave transmission / reception circuit 3 Color / power arithmetic circuit 4 Black-and-white image signal processing circuit 5 Color / power scanning conversion circuit 6 Black-and-white image scanning conversion circuit 7 Image display circuit 8 Image display 9 Real-time reflection intensity / luminance signal integral value Detection circuit 10 Region-of-interest designation circuit 20 Ultrasound unit 21 Region of interest 91 Noise removal circuit 92 Integration circuit 93 Memory circuit

Claims (2)

A probe (1) in which a large number of transducer elements are arranged to form a multi-channel and transmit / receive ultrasonic waves to / from a subject;
Wherein the probe ultrasonic transmitting and receiving means for applying the amplified ultrasonic received signal further reception focusing gives a predetermined delay from the probe with applying ultrasonic transmission signal (1) (2),
Wherein the ultrasonic transmitting and receiving unit (2) performs the calculation of the color Doppler and power Doppler on the output signal from the color / power arithmetic means (3),
Monochrome image signal processing means (4) for performing monochrome image signal processing on an output signal from the ultrasonic transmission / reception means (2);
Color / power scanning conversion means (5) and monochrome image scanning conversion means (6) for converting from ultrasonic scanning to scanning of the TV monitor (8);
Image display means (7) for displaying signals from the color / power scan conversion means (5) and the monochrome image scan conversion means (6) on the TV monitor (8) as display signals;
A region-of-interest setting means (10) for setting a region of interest for the image displayed on the TV monitor (8);
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:
Noise removing means (91) for removing noise signals specific to the ultrasonic device from the 0th gradation to the threshold gradation among the display signals in the region of interest ;
Integrating means (92) for obtaining an integrated value obtained by integrating the components of the display signal from which the noise has been removed;
The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, wherein the image display means (7) displays the waveform of the passage of the biological agent from the organ based on the integral value in real time on the TV monitor (8). The image display means (7) displays a signal from the color / power scan conversion means (5) and a black and white image scan conversion means (6) and a waveform of the passage of the biological agent from the organ of the contrast medium. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus displays side by side or superimposed on the TV monitor (8).

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