JP4967763B2 - Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of automatically measuring the size of a tissue such as a blood vessel.

  In recent years, the importance of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) examination has begun to be recognized. AAA occurs most often in men aged 50 to 80 years and tends to be particularly common in hypertensive people, especially smokers. When the abdominal aorta ruptures, the risk of death is high, but subjective symptoms such as pain are less likely to appear, and it is often detected only when an ultrasound examination is performed.

  An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is suitable for the examination from the viewpoint of cost and simplicity. Conventionally, in the diagnosis of AAA, a doctor or an ultrasonic engineer manually positions a blood vessel wall while displaying an ultrasonic image on the screen. It was common to specify and measure the distance between specified points. However, although it is relatively easy to specify the position of a blood vessel wall in a still image, it has never been easy to specify a position while diagnosing a moving image. For this reason, an apparatus that can easily measure the diameter of a blood vessel is desired.

  First, a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus will be briefly described. FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a general ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus used when measuring the length of a blood vessel or the like.

  As shown in FIG. 31, the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 12 transmits / receives echoes through the ultrasonic probe 11, and the received echoes are converted into image data by the image generation unit 13 and displayed on the screen via the screen display unit 14. The On the other hand, the user designates a measurement point via the measurement position setting unit 41 while viewing the displayed image, and the image measurement unit 42 performs measurement in the image according to the designated point, and displays the measurement result on the screen display unit. 14 on the screen.

  There are various methods for setting the measurement position, but when measuring the distance between two points, two points are inevitably set while viewing the screen. Since the measurement is performed based on the set position, the correct distance cannot be measured unless the position is specified accurately.

  However, for example, when measuring the diameter of a blood vessel, it is necessary to set two points 180 degrees apart on the boundary (contour) between the blood vessel wall and the blood vessel lumen as shown in FIG. In this case, it is difficult to correctly specify the position. Even when image capturing is stopped and the position is set in the state of a still image, it cannot be said that the operation is very simple.

  On the other hand, various methods for easily measuring have been proposed. For example, in the method shown in Patent Document 1, a region of interest (ROI, Region of Interest) that crosses a blood vessel wall vertically is set, and the ROI Based on the profile of the pixel value, the thickness and inner diameter of the blood vessel wall can be measured.

  Moreover, in the method shown in Patent Document 2, the size of the tissue can be measured by displaying a circular marker on the screen and adjusting the position and size of the marker according to the image to be measured.

Furthermore, in the method shown in Patent Document 3, a template is displayed on the screen to obtain the blood vessel center on the ultrasonic image, polar coordinate conversion is performed with the center as the origin, blood vessel edges are detected based on the image, and detection data By calculating the average diameter based on the above, the inner diameter of the blood vessel can be determined.
JP-A-11-342132 JP 2001-54521 A JP-A-2005-028123

  However, in the method described in Patent Document 1, although it is not necessary to designate the contour portion, it is necessary to designate two ROIs. Further, if the ROI is not set vertically so as to cross the blood vessel, the measurement is correctly performed. There is a problem that it cannot be done, and it cannot be said that designation on a moving image is easy.

  The method described in Patent Document 2 adjusts two parameters, the position and the size, and the size of the marker directly affects the measurement value. Thus, there is essentially no difference from the method of specifying two points on the blood vessel wall.

  Furthermore, in the method described in Patent Document 3, a blood vessel contour can be extracted and a diameter can be measured, but it is necessary to adjust the template to the edge of the blood vessel, and adjustment work is still necessary. .

  By the way, when measuring a blood vessel diameter, as shown in FIG. 5, an image in a short axis direction (short axis image) that is a cross section perpendicular to the blood vessel long axis direction and an image in a long axis direction as shown in FIG. There are two measurement methods (long axis image). The blood vessel diameter of the short axis image is obtained by the distance between the blood vessel walls passing through the center of the blood vessel, that is, the diameter of the substantially circular blood vessel wall, and the blood vessel diameter of the long axis image is obtained by the vertical distance between the blood vessel walls.

  On the other hand, the method described in Patent Document 3 is specialized for measurement with a short-axis image and does not consider measurement of a long-axis image.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem. When measuring the diameter of a blood vessel, the diameter of the blood vessel is automatically measured regardless of the type of short axis / long axis. An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of performing

In order to solve the conventional problems, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is:
An image generation unit that converts echoes received via the ultrasonic probe into image data in units of frames;
Contour extracting means for extracting the contour of the image data output from the image generating unit;
Determination means for determining whether the image is in the short axis direction or the long axis direction based on the extracted contour;
Image measuring means for measuring the contour portion in the image in the short axis direction or the long axis direction;
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, it is possible to determine the short-axis image and the long-axis image of the ultrasonic image and perform measurement according to the determination result.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
The contour extracting means includes a smoothing means for smoothing an image based on surrounding pixels.

  With this configuration, contour extraction can be performed on an image that has been smoothed to reduce random noise included in an ultrasonic image.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
A threshold adjustment means capable of adjusting the threshold;
Binarizing means for binarizing with a threshold according to the luminance level of the image,
Binary image contour extraction means for extracting a contour based on a binarized image;
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, the threshold value can be adjusted, the image is binarized according to the set threshold value, and the contour can be extracted based on the binary image.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
Binarization means for binarizing with a threshold according to the luminance level of the image;
Threshold calculation means for setting a threshold so that the ratio after binarization becomes a predetermined value;
Binary image contour extraction means for extracting a contour based on a binarized image;
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, the threshold value for binarization can be set so that the ratio after binarization becomes a predetermined value, and the image is binarized according to the set threshold value. The contour can be extracted based on the image.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
Binarization means for binarizing with a threshold according to the luminance level of the image;
A binarization ratio adjusting means capable of adjusting the ratio after binarization;
Threshold calculation means for setting a threshold so that the ratio after binarization becomes an adjusted value;
Binary image contour extraction means for extracting a contour based on a binarized image;
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, the threshold value can be set according to the adjusted ratio after binarization, the image can be binarized according to the set threshold value, and the contour can be extracted based on the binary image.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
Start position setting means for setting the start position of the process;
Centroid calculating means for calculating the centroid position of the extracted contour based on the start position information;
A distance calculating means for calculating a plurality of distances from the center of gravity position to the extracted contour at different angles;
A dispersion value determination means for calculating a dispersion value of the calculated distance and performing a determination based on the dispersion value;
It is characterized by comprising a judging means comprising:

  With this configuration, it is possible to calculate the centroid position based on the processing start position, and to determine the short axis image and the long axis image based on the dispersion of the distance from the centroid position to the contour.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
Histogram creation means for displaying the calculated distance from the center of gravity position to the extracted contour as a histogram on the screen;
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, the frequency distribution of the distance from the center of gravity position to the contour can be visually grasped.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
Normalization means for normalizing the calculated distance from the center of gravity position to the extracted contour with the maximum value of the distance;
Dispersion value determining means for determining a short-axis image and a long-axis image based on the normalized dispersion value of the distance is provided.

  With this configuration, it is possible to determine the short-axis image and the long-axis image based on the variance normalized by the maximum value of the distance from the center of gravity position to the contour.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
Histogram creation means for displaying normalized calculation distance as a histogram on the screen,
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, it is possible to visually grasp the dispersion normalized by the maximum value of the distance from the center of gravity position to the contour.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
Among the calculated distances from the center of gravity position to the extracted contour, distance range limiting means for limiting the effective range;
A dispersion value determination unit that calculates a dispersion value of a calculation distance having a limited effective range, and determines a short-axis image and a long-axis image based on the dispersion value;
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, it is possible to determine the short-axis image and the long-axis image based on the dispersion of the distance from the center of gravity position to the contour excluding a certain range.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
Among the calculated distances from the center of gravity position to the extracted contour, effective range setting means capable of adjusting the limited effective distance range;
Distance range limiting means for excluding distances outside a certain range based on the effective range;
Histogram creation means for displaying the calculated distance after the effective range limitation on the screen as a histogram,
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, it is possible to determine the short-axis image and the long-axis image based on the dispersion of the distance from the center of gravity position to the contour by setting the effective range while viewing the screen and excluding the distance outside the certain range.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
Start position setting means for setting the position by the user specifying one point on the screen;
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, the determination processing start position can be set based on the position designated by the user.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
Start position setting means for performing position setting based on the start position in the previous frame;
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, it is not necessary to set the processing start position for each frame, and the determination processing start position can be set based on the previous frame position.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
In the short-axis image measuring means, the radius is obtained based on the distance from the center of gravity position to the extracted contour.

  With this configuration, the radius of the short-axis image can be obtained based on the distance from the center of gravity of the short-axis image to the extracted contour.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
A short-axis image measuring unit that calculates an average of a distance from the center of gravity position to the extracted contour as a radius is provided.

  With this configuration, the radius of the short axis image can be obtained based on the average distance from the center of gravity of the short axis image to the extracted contour.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
In the long axis image measuring means, the diameter is calculated based on the distance between the extracted contours in the direction perpendicular to the long axis.

  With this configuration, the diameter of the long axis image can be obtained based on the distance between the contours of the long axis image.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
In the long-axis image measuring means, a diagonal distance calculating means for calculating a distance between the contours located on the opposite side of the center of gravity of the extracted contour by 180 degrees;
Shortest distance calculation means for calculating the shortest distance between contours as a diameter,
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, the shortest distance between the contours of the long-axis image can be calculated, and the diameter of the long-axis image can be obtained.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
In the contour interval calculation means, a measurement position adjustment means for adjusting the measurement reference position;
Of the extracted contours, diagonal distance calculating means for calculating the distance between the contours located on the opposite side of 180 degrees centered on the center of gravity position;
Shortest distance calculation means for calculating the shortest distance between contours as a diameter,
It is characterized by having.

  With this configuration, the measurement reference position of the long-axis image can be adjusted, the shortest distance between the contours at the reference position can be calculated, and the diameter of the long-axis image can be obtained.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
A measurement result display means for displaying the measurement result on the screen is provided.

  With this configuration, the measurement result can be visually confirmed.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
It is characterized by comprising measurement result display means for displaying on the screen a circle centered on the center of gravity position of the extracted contour and having the center of gravity position and / or the value of the measurement result as a radius.

  With this configuration, the measurement result can be visually confirmed.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is
A measurement result display means for displaying on the screen a straight line that is the shortest distance of the extracted contour is provided.

  With this configuration, the measurement result can be visually confirmed.

  According to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention, when measuring the diameter of a blood vessel, it is possible to automatically measure the blood vessel diameter regardless of the type of the short axis / long axis. Can be reduced.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(First embodiment)
First, the configuration of the entire ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 1 includes an ultrasonic probe 11, an ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 12, an image generation unit 13, a screen display unit 14, a contour extraction unit 15, a determination unit 16, a short-axis image measurement unit 17, and a long-axis image measurement. Means 18 are provided.

  Similar to the conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 12 transmits / receives echoes through the ultrasonic probe 11, and the received echoes are converted into image data in units of frames by the image generation unit 13, via the screen display unit 14. Displayed on the screen. On the other hand, the contour extraction unit 15 extracts the contour of the ultrasonic image data in units of frames sent from the image generation unit 13 and outputs it to the determination unit 16.

  The determination unit 16 determines whether the ultrasonic image is an image in the short axis direction or an image in the long axis direction based on the contour information. Based on the determination result, either the short-axis image measurement unit 17 or the long-axis image measurement unit 18 measures an image, sends the result to the screen display unit 14, and displays it on the screen.

  Next, details of the contour extracting means 15 will be described with reference to FIG. The contour extracting unit 15 of FIG. 2 includes a smoothing unit 21, a binarization ratio adjusting unit 23, a threshold value calculating unit 24, a binarizing unit 25, and a binary image contour extracting unit 26.

  Examples of the smoothing means 21 include a 3 × 3 pixel averaging filter shown in FIG. This averaging filter performs smoothing by adding 1/9 to the luminance of the center pixel of interest and the luminance of all eight adjacent pixels, and adding the result to the luminance of the pixel of interest.

  Note that the filter is just an example, and any filter may be applied as long as it is a smoothing filter such as an averaging filter or a median filter in which the weights of surrounding pixels are changed.

  The ultrasonic image data smoothed by the smoothing means 21 is sent to the threshold setting means 22. In the threshold setting means 22, the user may set the threshold directly, or the threshold may be set based on the ultrasonic data. As an example of a specific procedure, the threshold value calculation means 24 creates histogram data as shown in FIG. 8 from the ultrasonic data, and further creates integrated value data as shown in FIG. . Further, the threshold value is calculated based on the binarized ratio set by the user using the binarization ratio adjusting means 23.

  The threshold value setting means 22 and the binarization ratio adjusting means 23 send the setting values to the display means 14 so that the setting values can be seen on the screen, as shown in the display examples of FIGS. It is desirable to display in a simple form.

  Further, the binarizing unit 25 binarizes the ultrasonic data according to the threshold value, and the binary image contour extracting unit 26 extracts a contour from the binarized image data. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 10, the contour is extracted when the center pixel is 1 and the peripheral pixel has one or more 0 (FIG. 10A), and the center pixel is 0. In this case (FIG. 10B) or when all the pixels are 1 (FIG. 10C), all pixels are confirmed as non-contoured.

  The example of the contour extraction unit 15 has been described above, but the method of contour extraction is not limited to this, and a generally known method such as image differentiation may be used.

  Next, details of the determination unit 16 will be described with reference to FIG. The determination unit 16 of FIG. 3 includes a start position setting unit 31, a center of gravity calculation unit 32, a distance calculation unit 33, and a variance value determination unit 34.

  The start position setting means 31 sets one point of the blood vessel lumen on the ultrasonic image on the display screen designated by the user as the start position. Since the start position is also displayed on the screen, it is desirable to send the start position information to the screen display unit 14 as well. Also, it is desirable to store the start position once designated and automatically read it out as the start position of each frame until the user designates it again.

  The center-of-gravity calculation unit 32 calculates the center-of-gravity position of the contour based on the contour information from the contour extraction unit 15 and the start position information. As a specific example, as shown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12, the contour position coordinates (x, y) for one round around the start position are acquired, and the center of gravity is calculated by taking the average in the x direction and the y direction, respectively. Can be calculated. The calculated center-of-gravity position information is sent to the distance calculation means 33.

  The distance calculation means 33 calculates a distance (radius) from the center of gravity position to the contour. As a specific example, as shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, the radius r at the angle θ is obtained for one round. Examples of acquired radii are shown in FIGS. 15 and 16. In the case of a short-axis image, since the contour is substantially circular, the radius obtained is substantially constant as shown in FIG. 15, but in the case of a long-axis image, the contour is a shape close to two parallel lines. As shown in FIG.

  The radius information is sent to the variance value judging means 34 and also sent to the histogram creating means 35 to create a histogram as shown in FIGS. 17 and 18, and through the screen display unit 14, FIG. 29 and FIG. It is displayed on the screen in the form shown in 30 display examples.

  The variance value determining unit 34 calculates a variance value based on the radius information, and determines a short axis image and a long axis image according to the calculated variance value. In the case of a short-axis image, since the contour is substantially circular, the radius histogram is a graph concentrated in a narrow radius range as shown in FIG. 17, and the standard deviation is relatively small. On the other hand, in the case of the long axis image, as shown in FIG. 18, the radius distribution is in a relatively wide range, and the standard deviation is a large value. Accordingly, an appropriate threshold value is set, and when the radius standard deviation is smaller than that value, it is determined that the image is a short axis image, and vice versa.

  The threshold value of the standard deviation is premised on setting an optimum value in advance. However, for example, by adding a mechanism that allows the user to adjust the threshold value, the adaptability for more images can be increased. It can be expanded.

  Finally, the image measuring means will be described. Based on the result determined by the determination means 16, the contour information is sent to the short-axis image measurement means 17 or the long-axis image measurement means 18.

  The short-axis image measuring unit 17 calculates an average radius based on the radius information, and sets twice the value as the blood vessel diameter. At that time, in order to reduce the influence of erroneous detection of the radius due to noise or the like, it is desirable to take the average after removing the radius value having a large deviation. Further, the radius may be determined by other means such as using the mode instead of the average as the radius.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 19, the long-axis image measuring means 18 has a configuration of a diagonal distance calculating means 39 and a shortest distance calculating means 40. As shown in FIG. The distance d between the contours 180 degrees opposite to the center of gravity is calculated, and the shortest distance calculation means 40 sets the shortest value of the distance d as the blood vessel diameter.

  Further, in the case of a long-axis image as shown in FIG. 21, it is necessary to perform measurement at the AAA portion, slightly to the right of the center of gravity position. For this reason, the long-axis image measuring unit 18 can also be configured as a diagonal distance calculating unit 39, a shortest distance calculating unit 40, and a measurement position adjusting unit 41 as shown in FIG. In this case, as shown in FIG. 21, the measurement position adjustment unit 41 adjusts the measurement reference position 118, and the diagonal distance calculation unit 39 uses a distance between contours that are 180 degrees opposite to the measurement reference position. The shortest distance calculation means 40 can perform the optimum measurement according to the AAA portion by setting the shortest value of the distance d ′ as the blood vessel diameter.

  For the blood vessel diameter of the long-axis image, the distance between contours that is perpendicular to the contours may be directly obtained without using the above-described method. In addition, the start position set by the start position setting means 31 in the determination means 16 may be input to the long-axis image measurement means 18 and measurement may be performed using the start position as a measurement reference position. Even without adjustment by the measurement position adjusting means 41, it is possible to perform optimum measurement according to the AAA portion.

  In either case, the calculated measurement value is sent to the screen display unit 14 and, in the case of a short-axis image, information about a circle centered on the center of gravity position of the extracted contour and with the measurement value as a radius, or a long-axis image In this case, the center of gravity or the measurement reference position and the straight line information which is the shortest distance of the extracted contour are sent to the screen display unit 14 and displayed in the form shown in the display examples of FIGS. The measurement result can be confirmed.

  With the above configuration, when measuring the diameter of a blood vessel, it is possible to determine a short-axis image and a long-axis image, and to measure the blood vessel diameter by an optimum method according to the determination result.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem. When measuring the diameter of a blood vessel, the diameter of the blood vessel is automatically measured regardless of the type of short axis / long axis. An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of performing

(Second Embodiment)
Next, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The overall configuration of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and only the configuration of the determination unit 16 is different. For this reason, in this embodiment, descriptions other than the determination unit 16 are omitted.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration of the determination unit 16 in the second embodiment. In FIG. 4, the determination unit 16 includes a start position setting unit 31, a center of gravity calculation unit 32, a distance calculation unit 33, a normalization unit 36, an effective range setting unit 38, a distance range limitation unit 37, a variance value determination unit 34, and a histogram creation. Means 35 are provided.

  Among these, the start position setting unit 31, the center of gravity calculation unit 32, and the distance calculation unit 33 have the same configuration as in the first embodiment, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The center-of-gravity calculation unit 32 calculates the center-of-gravity position of the contour based on the start position information set by the start position setting unit 31 and the contour information from the contour extraction unit 15. The calculated center-of-gravity position information is sent to the distance calculation means 33. The distance calculating unit 33 calculates a radius from the position of the center of gravity to the contour, and sends the calculated radius information to the normalizing unit 36.

  The normalizing means 36 normalizes the radius information with a maximum value. 17 and 18, A indicates the minimum value, and B indicates the maximum value. By performing normalization based on these maximum values B, frequency distributions as shown in FIGS. 23 and 24 are obtained, respectively. The normalized radius information is sent to the distance range limiting means 37.

  On the other hand, the effective range setting means 38 sets the effective range of the radius value based on the mode value of the radius and sends it to the distance range limiting means 37. The effective range is preferably sent to the display means 14 and displayed in the form shown in the display examples of FIGS. 29 and 30 so that the set value can be seen on the screen. .

  The distance range limiting unit 37 limits the effective range of the radius information according to the effective radius range of the radius information adjusted by the effective range setting unit 38.

  Here, the effective range is not the radius after normalization, and it is desirable to set the radius based on the mode value in the frequency distribution before normalization as shown in FIGS. In the example of the short-axis image of FIG. 25, the effective range includes the minimum value A to the maximum value B of the frequency distribution. Therefore, the frequency distribution after the effective range is limited is shown in FIG. Same as distribution. On the other hand, in the example of FIG. 26 of the long axis image, the effective range is from the minimum value A to B ′ which is the maximum value in the effective range, so the frequency distribution after limiting the effective range is B− as shown in FIG. The distribution between B ′ is deleted. As can be seen by comparing FIG. 17 and FIG. 25, and FIG. 18 and FIG. 26, by performing normalization and effective range limiting processing, the short-axis image becomes a distribution with a larger deviation than the original frequency distribution, and the long-axis image Has a smaller deviation than the original distribution.

  In order to obtain the mode reference of the radius information effective range, the effective range may be set by applying a more accurate method such as least square method or Lmeds (Least Median of Squares) estimation. .

  The variance value determination unit 34 calculates a variance value based on the radius information after the effective range is limited, and determines a short-axis image and a long-axis image according to the calculated variance value. For this reason, contrary to the first embodiment, when the radius standard deviation is larger than the set threshold value, it is possible to correctly determine both by determining the short-axis image and in the opposite case the long-axis image. .

  The threshold value of the standard deviation is premised on setting an optimal value in advance, but for example, by adding a mechanism that allows the user to adjust, the adaptability can be further expanded. Become.

  Further, when the range limitation by the distance range limitation unit 37 is not performed, the radius information normalized by the normalization unit 36 is sent to the variance value determination unit 34 and the histogram creation unit 35, and via the screen display unit 14, By configuring the display so as to be displayed in the display examples of FIGS. 29 and 30, it is possible to check the normalized radius histogram.

  With the above configuration, when measuring the diameter of a blood vessel, it is possible to determine a short-axis image and a long-axis image, and to measure the blood vessel diameter by an optimum method according to the determination result.

  As described above, a plurality of embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. For example, the start position of the center of gravity detection is automatically set according to an ultrasonic image, and various other forms are used. Can be implemented. Further, within the scope described in the claims, the means described in the embodiments can be omitted.

  The present invention can be suitably used when measuring the diameter of a blood vessel such as an abdominal aorta in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically perform measurement according to the orientation regardless of whether the orientation of the probe at the time of blood vessel imaging of ultrasonic image data is the short axis direction or the long axis direction.

1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram which shows schematic structure of the outline extraction means in the ultrasonic diagnosing device which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows schematic structure of the determination means in the ultrasonic diagnosing device which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows schematic structure of the determination means in the ultrasonic diagnosing device which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of the internal diameter measurement method of the blood vessel in a short-axis direction image The figure which shows the example of the internal diameter measurement method of the blood vessel in a longitudinal direction image Diagram showing 3x3 averaging filter Graph showing an example of luminance histogram of ultrasound image data Graph showing an example of integrating the luminance histogram of ultrasound image data The figure which shows the example of the outline detection method after binarization The figure which shows the example of calculation of the gravity center position of a short-axis image The figure which shows the example of calculation of the gravity center position of a long-axis image The figure which shows the radius acquisition example of the gravity center reference | standard in a short-axis image The figure which shows the radius acquisition example of the gravity center reference | standard in a long-axis image The figure which illustrates the relation between the angle and the radius in the short axis image The figure which illustrates the relation between the angle and the radius in the long axis image Diagram showing an example of a histogram of radii in a short-axis image Figure showing an example of a histogram of radii in a long-axis image The block diagram which shows schematic structure of the long-axis image detection means in the ultrasonic diagnosing device which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example which calculates the distance between the outlines on the opposite side 180 degree | times centering on the gravity center in a long-axis image The figure which shows the example which the position of AAA has shifted | deviated to the right side from the gravity center in a long-axis image The block diagram which shows schematic structure at the time of making a measurement position adjustable in the long-axis image detection means in the ultrasonic diagnosing device which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of a radius histogram after normalization with the maximum value in a short-axis image The figure which shows the example of a radius histogram after normalization with the maximum value in a long-axis image The figure which shows the example of effective range setting in a short-axis image The figure which shows the effective range setting example in a long-axis image The figure which shows the example of a radius histogram which limited the effective range after normalizing with the maximum value in a short axis image The figure which shows the example of a radius histogram which limited the effective range after normalizing with the maximum value in a long axis image A figure showing an example of a display screen in a short axis image The figure which shows the example of a display screen in a long axis image A block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Ultrasonic probe 12 Ultrasonic transmission / reception part 13 Image generation part 14 Screen display part 15 Contour extraction means 16 Judgment means 17 Short-axis image measurement means 18 Long-axis image measurement means 21 Smoothing means 22 Threshold adjustment means 23 Binarization Ratio adjustment means 24 Threshold value calculation means 25 Binarization means 26 Binary image contour extraction means 31 Start position setting means 32 Center of gravity calculation means 33 Distance calculation means 34 Variance value determination means 35 Histogram creation means 36 Normalization means 37 Distance range Limiting means 38 Effective range setting means 39 Diagonal distance calculation means 40 Shortest processing calculation means 41 Measurement position adjustment means 101 Blood vessel lumen 102 Blood vessel wall 103 First measurement point 104 Second measurement point 111 Extracted contour 112 Start position 113 Coordinates (x, y) of detected contour position
114 Calculated center-of-gravity position 115 Contour radius r with angle θ centered on the center of gravity
116 Distance d between contours opposite to 180 degrees with the center of gravity at the center and angle θ
117 Center-of-gravity-based blood vessel diameter 118 Measurement reference position 119 Distance d ′ between contours 180 degrees opposite to the measurement reference position at the angle θ
120 Blood vessel diameter when the measurement reference position is matched with the AAA portion 121 B-mode image 122 Measurement result circle at the time of the short axis image 123 Measurement result line at the time of the long axis image 124 Histogram image 125 Effective range setting unit 126 Threshold setting unit 127 Binarization ratio adjustment unit 128 Blood vessel diameter measurement result 129 Measurement reference position

Claims (21)

An image generation unit that converts echoes received via the ultrasonic probe into image data in units of frames;
Contour extracting means for extracting the contour of the image data output from the image generating unit;
Determination means for determining whether the image is in the short-axis direction or the long-axis direction based on the extracted contour ,
The determination means includes a start position setting means for setting a start position of processing, a centroid calculation means for calculating a centroid position of the extracted contour based on the start position information, and a distance from the centroid position to the extracted contour. A distance calculating unit that calculates a plurality of values by changing an angle; and a variance value determining unit that calculates a variance value of the calculated distance and determines a short-axis image and a long-axis image based on the variance value. Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image measurement unit that measures the contour portion in the image in the short axis direction or the long axis direction determined by the determination unit. Said contour extraction means, ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a smoothing means, for smoothing the image based on the surrounding pixels. The contour extracting means comprises threshold adjusting means capable of adjusting a threshold and binarizing means for binarizing with the threshold according to the luminance level of the image. to ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to any one of claims 1, characterized in that to extract the contour 3. The contour extracting means includes a binarizing means for binarizing with a threshold value according to the luminance level of the image, and a threshold value for setting the threshold value so that the ratio after binarization becomes a predetermined value. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a calculation unit that extracts a contour based on a binarized image. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 6 , further comprising: a binarization ratio adjusting unit capable of adjusting the ratio after the binarization. A histogram creating means for displaying the calculated distance in a histogram on a screen;
The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: The determining means normalizing means for normalizing the calculated distance with a maximum distance;
Dispersion value determination means for determining a short-axis image and a long-axis image based on the normalized dispersion value of the distance;
The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising:   The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising: a histogram creating unit configured to display the normalized calculated distance as a histogram on a screen. Characterized by comprising a variance value determining means for determining the short axis image and the long axis image calculated based on the variance value variance value of the calculated distance to be limited in scope, claim 1 The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to any one of 9 . The determination unit includes an effective range setting unit capable of adjusting an effective distance range to be limited, a histogram creation unit that displays the calculated distance after the effective range limitation on a screen as a histogram,
The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising: It said start position setting means, ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 11 users and performs the positioning by specifying one point on the screen. Said start position setting means, ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the position setting the starting position based on the previous frame. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the short-axis image measurement unit obtains a radius based on a distance from the center of gravity position to the extracted contour.   The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the short-axis image measuring unit calculates an average of a distance from the position of the center of gravity to the extracted contour as a radius. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the long-axis image measuring unit calculates a diameter based on a distance between the extracted contours in a direction perpendicular to the long axis.   The long-axis image measuring unit includes a diagonal distance calculating unit that calculates a distance between contours that are 180 degrees opposite to the center of gravity of the extracted contours, and a shortest distance between the contours as a diameter. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising: a shortest distance calculating unit that calculates.   The long-axis image measuring unit calculates a distance between a measurement position adjusting unit that adjusts a measurement reference position and a contour between the extracted contours that is 180 degrees opposite to the measurement reference position. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising: a distance calculation unit; and a shortest distance calculation unit that calculates the shortest distance between the contours as a diameter. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising a measurement result display unit that displays the measurement result on a screen.   The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the measurement result display unit displays a circle on the screen with the center of gravity position of the extracted contour as the center and the center of gravity position or the value of the measurement result as a radius. .   20. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the measurement result display means displays a straight line that is the shortest distance of the extracted contour on the screen.

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