JP4795746B2 - Intraluminal ultrasound diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an intraluminal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that generates and displays an ultrasonic tomographic image of a subject from a plurality of echo signals obtained by performing radial scanning of the subject with ultrasonic waves.

  Conventionally, a probe incorporating an ultrasonic transducer is inserted into a body cavity such as a blood vessel and a vascular vessel or other lumen, and the ultrasonic transducer is radially scanned to transmit ultrasonic waves. Intraluminal ultrasound diagnostic devices that receive echoes reflected by reflectors with the same ultrasonic transducer, perform amplification, detection, etc., and display them on the monitor as an image are widely used for medical purposes. ing.

  An example is an intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) device, for example, diagnosis of arteriosclerosis, preoperative diagnosis at the time of endovascular treatment with a high-function catheter such as a balloon catheter or stent, and postoperative results. Widely used for confirmation.

As described above, since one purpose of intravascular ultrasound diagnosis is a geometric diagnosis of a blood vessel lumen such as a blood vessel diameter and area, in many intravascular ultrasound diagnostic apparatuses, an inserted probe is used. Scales are displayed at equal intervals from the center of the catheter, and the approximate blood vessel diameter can be determined from the display screen even during real-time observation. A general intravascular ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus has a measurement function and can perform detailed measurement (for example, Patent Document 1). In many cases, an image is temporarily stored in a video recorder or the like. After that, it is common to perform detailed measurement using the reproduced image.
JP-A-11-318905

  In general, in an intravascular diagnosis, the IVUS catheter is rarely at the center of the blood vessel to be observed, and in many cases, the IVUS catheter is often placed at the end of the blood vessel as shown in FIG. In this case, as described above, it is not easy to determine the blood vessel diameter at the time of real-time observation using the scale indicating the distance from the center of the catheter.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state where a catheter is inserted into a blood vessel. When performing diagnosis of arteriosclerosis, preoperative diagnosis at the time of endovascular treatment, confirmation of postoperative results of the treatment, etc., as shown in FIG. 6B, a catheter is inserted into the blood vessel, Radial scanning of the built-in ultrasonic transducer (not shown) generates an image on the radiation centered on the ultrasonic transducer (for example, a round of lines 1 to 1023). The B-mode image of the blood vessel cross section is drawn as shown in FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a display example of a B-mode image of a general blood vessel cross section. In the intravascular ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, a scale 41 is displayed from the center of the catheter 10 as shown in FIG. However, when the center of the catheter 10 is significantly different from the center of the blood vessel lumen 40 as in the example of FIG. 4, it is easy to determine the diameter of the blood vessel 40 and the diameter of the blood vessel lumen 40 from the scale 41. is not.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and in an intraluminal ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, even when the center of a probe is significantly different from the center of the lumen of an observation target lumen, it is generally used at the time of real-time diagnosis. It is an object of the present invention to easily diagnose the lumen diameter.

In order to achieve the above object, the intraluminal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention creates a B-mode image from a plurality of echo signals obtained by performing radial scanning of a subject with ultrasonic waves and displays the B-mode image. An image display means, a center position designation means for designating an arbitrary point on the B-mode image, and a plurality of concentric circles centered on the designated arbitrary point are superimposed on the B-mode image as a concentric circle scale. And a concentric circle display means for displaying. The user can select the scale width of the concentric scale so that the user can select the scale width, so that the diagnosis of the approximate lumen diameter can be performed quickly and easily.

  According to the intraluminal ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention as described above, even if the center of the catheter is significantly different from the center of the lumen of the blood vessel or vessel to be observed, It becomes possible to easily measure the cavity diameter.

  It is also possible to display and measure the lumen in real time.

  Furthermore, the lumen diameter can be measured with a desired measurement dimension.

  Embodiments of an intraluminal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Here, an intravascular ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus will be described as an example, but the same applies to other intraluminal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatuses and general intraluminal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatuses.

<Configuration Example of Intraluminal Ultrasound Diagnostic Device of this Embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an intraluminal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a catheter as a probe for ultrasonic diagnosis inserted into a lumen such as a blood vessel and a vessel, and 20 controls scanning and reception of ultrasonic waves in the catheter 10 for ultrasonic diagnosis. At the same time, it is a control device that creates and displays an image in the lumen. The control device 20 may be a general-purpose computer (personal computer) or a computer dedicated to this device. In this embodiment, a general-purpose computer is shown. Here, 25a indicates a keyboard, 25b indicates a pointing device such as a mouse (registered trademark) or a trackball, 25c indicates an pointing pen, and 26a indicates a display screen. Such a configuration will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The ultrasonic diagnostic catheter 10 includes, for example, a tube main body 60, an ultrasonic transducer 70 enclosed in the vicinity of the distal end of the tube main body 60, and a tip connected to the ultrasonic transducer 70. A signal line (not shown) that is electrically connected to 70, and a hollow coiled drive shaft 61 for rotationally scanning the ultrasonic transducer 70, and a guide formed at the tip of the tube body 60. Although composed of a wire lumen tube 62, a connector 63, and the like, the present invention is not limited to this. Reference numeral 64 denotes a drive device that is electrically connected to the control device 20. The drive device 64 is detachable from the connector 63 of the catheter 10, rotates the drive shaft 61 by a built-in motor (not shown), receives a signal obtained by the ultrasonic transducer 70, and sends it to the control device 20. Send.

  In the present invention, how a body cavity image is generated and displayed from information obtained by the ultrasonic transducer 70 is not described in detail because a known method may be used.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the control device 20, in this example, the personal computer 20.

  In FIG. 2, 21 is a CPU for calculation / control that controls the entire control device 20, 22 is a ROM that stores fixed programs and parameters at the time of booting, 23 is a RAM that temporarily stores application programs and data executed by the CPU 21, Reference numeral 24 denotes an external storage unit capable of nonvolatile storage such as a hard disk, DVD, memory card, etc. 25 denotes an input interface for inputting data from the catheter 10 for ultrasonic examination and various peripheral devices, and 26 denotes data to various peripheral devices. Is an output interface. The ultrasonic transducer of the catheter 10 for ultrasonic examination is also connected to the output interface, and a signal for ultrasonic transmission is transmitted.

  The RAM 23 has a data storage area for storing data and a program load area for loading a program executed by the CPU 21 from the external storage unit 24. In the data storage area, as the area used in this example, the ultrasound reception data 23a received from the ultrasound diagnostic catheter 10 and the body cavity image data 23b generated from the ultrasound reception data 23a are displayed in this embodiment. Concentric circle scale data 23c, center coordinates 23d on the display screen of the concentric circle scale to be displayed, display image data 23e to be displayed on the display screen, flag 23f indicating whether or not to display the concentric circle scale, 1mm, Each has a region for storing a flag 23g selected from three of 0.5 mm and 0.25 mm. The storage area shown here is unique to the present application, and a general-purpose storage area is not shown.

The external storage unit 24 has a data storage area for storing data and a program area for storing a program executed by the CPU 21. In this example, the data storage area stores parameters 24a unique to the ultrasound diagnosis and parameters 24b used to create a body cavity image from the ultrasound reception data 23a. In this example, an ultrasonic measurement program 24c including control of the ultrasonic transducer, a body cavity image creation program 24d for creating body cavity image data 23b from the ultrasound reception data 23a, and body cavity image data 23b are displayed in the program storage area. Image display program 24e,
A concentric circle scale display program 24f for superimposing and displaying the concentric circle scale data 23c on the body cavity image data 23b is stored. The classification of such programs is not limited to this, and a plurality of programs may be integrated or further divided. FIG. 2 does not show general-purpose programs such as system programs.

  The input interface 25 is connected to data input and operation instruction keyboard 25a, pointing device 25b, instruction pen 25c, and received data from catheter 10 for ultrasonic examination.

  The output interface 26 is connected to a display unit 26a and a control signal of an ultrasonic transducer of the catheter 10 for ultrasonic diagnosis (not shown).

<Operation Example of Intraluminal Ultrasound Diagnostic Device of this Embodiment>
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing program of the control device 20 as an example of an operation procedure of the intraluminal ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  In FIG. 3, first, in step S31, a cross-sectional image of a body cavity (blood vessel in this example) generated from the reception data from the catheter 10 for ultrasound examination is acquired. Incidentally, the generation of the cross-sectional image has a known module for that purpose. In step S32, the blood vessel cross-sectional image obtained in step S31 is displayed. An example of this display screen is shown in FIG. This is a display example of a blood vessel image 42 having a scale 41 centered on the catheter 10 and a lumen 40, which has been conventionally used.

  Next, in step S33, it is instructed whether or not to display a concentric scale. Such an instruction may display a dialog for instructing or display an inquiry on the display screen in step S32. If the display of the concentric scale is instructed, the process proceeds to step S34, and the scale width dimension of the concentric scale is selected. There is no such selection, and it may be a fixed dimension. In this case, step S34 is passed. In this example, it is selected from three of 1 mm, 0.5 mm, and 0.25 mm.

  In step S35, input of the center of the concentric scale is awaited. Such an input may be a key input from the keyboard 25a, a click of the cursor position on the screen by the pointing device 25b, or a point on the screen of the display unit 26a by the pointing pen 25c. Can input any point according to the diagnostic purpose. Further, although the procedure is not shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3, a user interface may be devised in which the displayed concentric scale is moved with the cursor on the screen or the pointing pen 25c. Such a user interface is also possible by a combination of known techniques. Therefore, the procedure of FIG. 3 is only the simplest example.

  In step S36, concentric scale data is acquired (or produced). If dimensional data of concentric scales are created and stored in advance for the above three items of 1 mm, 0.5 mm, and 0.25 mm, they may be acquired correspondingly. If it is not prepared in advance, it is created according to the selection of the scale width and the input of the center position. In step S37, concentric scale data obtained in step S36 is superimposed on the blood vessel cross-sectional image to create new display image data. The superimposed image of the concentric scale and the blood vessel cross-sectional image created in step S38 is displayed.

  FIG. 5 is a display screen example of a concentric scale with the center of the lumen of the blood vessel cross-sectional image as the center point according to the present embodiment. FIG. 5 is an example in which a concentric scale having a center point at an arbitrary point (here, the approximate center of the lumen) input by the user is superimposed on the image shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, 51 is a center point indicating an instructed arbitrary point, and 52 is a concentric scale centered on the center point 51.

  As shown in FIG. 5, when the operator selects the approximate center of the displayed blood vessel by moving the cursor with a pointing device or the like, a concentric scale is displayed around that point. This makes it possible to determine the approximate blood vessel diameter.

  In this embodiment, the dimensions indicated by the distance between the concentric scales are three, 1 mm, 0.5 mm, and 0.25 mm. The reason is that, in many cases, measurement of the vascular system is performed to determine the size of the balloon catheter or stent, and therefore it is sufficient to know the approximate diameter with an accuracy of about 0.25 mm at the maximum. Further, if the concentric scale interval is set to 0.25 mm or 0.5 mm, the device size can be determined as it is, which is very effective. However, the present invention is not limited to such dimensions.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus in a body cavity of this embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the control apparatus 20 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the example of an operation | movement procedure of the intraluminal ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the display screen of the blood vessel cross-sectional image displayed on the conventional intra-body-cavity ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the display screen on which the concentric scale was superimposed on the lumen | bore of the blood vessel cross-sectional image displayed on the intra-body-cavity ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the state which inserted the catheter in the blood vessel.

Claims (3)

B-mode image display means for producing and displaying a B-mode image from a plurality of echo signals obtained by radial scanning of the subject with ultrasonic waves;
Center position designation means for designating an arbitrary point on the B-mode image;
A plurality of concentric circles having the designated arbitrary point as a center point, and concentric circle display means for displaying the concentric circle scales on the B-mode image as superimposed ,
An intraluminal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, characterized in that a scale width dimension of the concentric scale is selectable by a user .   2. The intraluminal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the B-mode image display means displays the B-mode image in real time. The concentric circle display means displays a plurality of concentric circles at equal intervals, and the intervals can be selected from any of 1 mm, 0.5 mm, and 0.25 mm of the subject. 2. The intraluminal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to 1.

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