JPH04307038A - Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To achieve a higher recording efficiency by eliminating positional deviation or the like otherwise caused on a superscription data even when a display state of an echo image is changed in the displaying of the superscription data for anotation or the like in superimposition with the echo image in an ultrasonic diagnosis. CONSTITUTION:An echo image display control circuit 14 is controlled to alter a display state (moving, expansion, reduction mode change or the like) of an echo image with a CPU10 receiving a command of a switch panel 4 while a change data DC is transmitted to a character display control circuit 7. receiving the resulting alteration data DC, the character display control circuit 17 recomputes a display position of a superscription data displayed at this moment to perform a reloading of the superscription data in a character memory 18 based on recomputation information obtained. The reloading signal is displayed on a CRT5 in superimposition with the conents of a frame memory 15.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Object of the invention]

0002

[Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a medical ultrasonic diagnostic device, and in particular, annotations such as the names of each part, measurement results, and markers are added to diagnostic images constructed based on echo waves of ultrasonic signals. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having a mechanism for overwriting and displaying data such as the following.

0003

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In recent years, ultrasonic diagnostic equipment has been rapidly applied to the medical field and is frequently used in daily medical treatment. For this reason, it is important to record diagnostic images obtained on a TV monitor quickly and without waste and to file them. Therefore, when a diagnostic image is obtained on a TV monitor, it is usually convenient to overwrite the image with data such as annotations and measurement results from the beginning, and then take the overwritten diagnostic image on a photo or video printer.

[0004] In order to perform this overwriting, a frame memory (also called an image memory) and a character memory are used as memories for supplying image signals to the TV monitor. Equipped with memory (also called graphics memory). The image signal of the echo image obtained from the echo wave of the ultrasound emitted toward the living body's diagnosis target is stored in the frame memory corresponding to each pixel of the TV monitor, while the image signal is output based on the operator's request. In addition, image signals of overwrite data such as annotations, markers, and auto data are stored in the character memory. Then, the data in both memories is added for each corresponding memory address and then sent to the TV monitor for display.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned prior art, it is necessary to change the display state of the image at the same diagnostic position from the state in which annotations, etc. are overwritten on the echo image on the TV monitor (specifically, Enlarge, reduce,
(in addition to movement, diagnosis depth, display position on the monitor screen, etc.), the position of the overwritten data will maintain its original position on the screen, so the position of the diagnostic image and the overwritten display on the monitor screen may shift. Put it away. To explain this problem specifically, when an echo image of a cardiac region is overwritten with annotations (RV, LV, AO, LA) as shown in FIG. 7(a), only the echo image is reduced and moved. As a result, an annotation shift occurs as shown in FIG. 7(b). Therefore, it becomes necessary to change the position of the overwritten data in the changed monitor image, and the rewriting process is extremely troublesome, resulting in a problem that the efficiency of recording diagnostic images is reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art, and even when the display state of the echo image is changed from the state where annotation etc. have been overwritten,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that can efficiently record a monitor image without shifting the position of an overwritten display on an echo image.

[Configuration of the invention]

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, as shown in FIG. 1, the present invention includes a TV monitor and a storage area corresponding to each pixel of the TV monitor, which can be read and written. In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus equipped with a frame memory and a character memory, and a superimposition display means for reading and superimposing data stored in both memories and displaying the superimposed data on the TV monitor, an image signal generation means for generating an image signal based on an ultrasonic echo signal; a display state command means for commanding the display state of the echo image on the TV monitor according to a request of an operator; and commands for the display state command means. write information calculation means for calculating the write information of the generated signal of the image signal generation means in the frame memory based on the information on the generated signal of the image signal generation means in accordance with the calculation information of the write information calculation means; an image display control means for writing data into a frame memory; an overwrite data creation means for creating data to be overwritten on the echo image of the TV monitor in accordance with an operator's request; an overwrite display control means for writing into the character memory; a command content determination means for determining whether or not the command content of the display state command means has changed; and when the command content determination means determines that the command content has changed. and overwrite display changing means for changing the written content in the character memory according to the calculation information of the writing information calculation means.

[0009]

[Operation] Now, the apparatus is driven, the image signal obtained by the image signal generation means is stored in the frame memory, and the operator specifies overwrite data such as annotation from the overwrite data creation means, and the overwrite display control means Suppose that overwrite data is stored in the character memory via . As a result, the stored contents of both memories are superimposed pixel by pixel by the superimposing display means and displayed in an overlapping state on the TV monitor.

In this state, suppose that the operator instructs the display state of the echo image on the TV monitor to be enlarged or moved, for example, from the display state command means. Due to this command change, the write information calculation means recalculates the write position, size, etc. of the image signal in the frame memory in accordance with the change in the display state command, and based on this calculation information, the image display control means Rewrite each memory content in memory.

[0011] In response to this change in the display state of the echo image based on the operator's intention, the command content determining means determines whether or not the command has been changed. In response to this determination, the overwrite display changing means takes in the calculation information of the write information calculation means and rewrites the stored data in the character memory, that is, the overwrite data, in accordance with the information. Therefore, as the display state of the echo image changes, the position, size, etc. of overwritten data such as annotations and measurement results are also changed.
There is no possibility that only the overwritten data will be left behind at the original position and the position will be shifted.

0012

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 to 6.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus shown in FIG. 2 is used by applying it to a living body 1, and includes a probe 2 having a piezoelectric vibrator, and transmitting electric pulses to the probe 2 and transmitting electrical pulses from the probe 2 to the probe 2. The apparatus includes a main body 3 for receiving electrical pulses, a switch panel 4 connected to the main body 3, and a CRT 5 serving as a TV monitor.

Among these, the switch panel 4 is equipped with various switches manually operated by the operator, including switches for driving and stopping the device, and switches related to image display such as normal mode, enlargement mode, reduction mode, and movement mode. It is possible to output a signal SS and a switch signal CR regarding overwrite data such as annotation (including overwrite position data).

The device main body 3 includes a main CPU (central processing unit) 10 that inputs the switch signal SS from the switch panel 4 and performs the processing shown in FIG. 11, this transmitting/receiving circuit 11
A/D (analog/digital) converter 1 on the signal processing side of
2. It has a structure in which a digital scan converter 13, an echo image display control circuit 14, and a frame memory 15 are sequentially connected. Of these, the transmitting/receiving circuit 11 is
Under the control of U10, the probe 2 is electronically scanned, for example, in a sector method. Therefore, an ultrasonic pulse signal related to sector scanning is emitted from the probe 2 toward the diagnosis target region of the living body 1, and the echo waves reflected from the target region are converted into electrical signals and supplied to the transmitter/receiver circuit 11. be done. This transmitting/receiving circuit 11 converts the electric signal of the input echo wave into an A/D converter.
Digital scan converter 13 via converter 12
supply to.

[0016] The digital scan converter 13 has a C
Under the control of the PU 10, the digital output signal of the A/D converter 12, that is, the sector scanning image signal, is converted into, for example, an interlaced scanning image signal, and this converted signal is sent to the next-stage echo image display control circuit. Output to 14. This echo image display control circuit 14 has the function of a local CPU, and inputs a control signal DF related to image display such as screen enlargement, reduction, movement, etc. supplied from the CPU 10, and outputs an image signal according to this control signal DF. After processing, the processed image signal is output to the frame memory 15. The frame memory 15 has one frame memory for each pixel of the CRT 5.
Since it has a memory configuration that corresponds to one pair, an echo image can be formed on the CRT 5 using the stored contents as they are.

The device main body 3 also includes a switch panel 4.
The character generator 16 has a character generator 16 inputting the switch signal CR from the character generator 16.
A character display control circuit 17 and a character memory 18 are connected to the output side of the character display control circuit 17 and character memory 18. Character generator 16
outputs overwrite data cr including font data of characters, symbols, etc. corresponding to the switch input signal CR to the character display control circuit 17. The character display control circuit 17 has a circuit configuration that functions as one local CPU 17, and receives echo image change data D, which will be described later, from the main CPU 10.
C is input via the bus, and the processing shown in FIG. 4, which will be described later, is performed. In other words, by performing the process shown in FIG. 4, this control circuit 17 can control overwrite data
r is written to a specified location in the character memory 18 and formatted. On the other hand, when change data DC is input, the location where the overwrite data cr should be stored is recalculated according to the data content, and the data is stored in the character memory 18. Rewrite to. The character memory 18 stores frame
Like the memory 15, it has a memory configuration that corresponds to each pixel of the CRT 5 on a one-to-one basis.

Furthermore, the device main body 3 includes an adder circuit 19 that reads out the contents of both the frame memory 15 and the character memory 18 individually and adds them to each data corresponding to each pixel of the CRT 5, and this adder circuit. A D/A converter 20 that performs D/A (digital/analog) conversion of the 19 addition data is provided, and the output of this converter 20 is sent to the CRT 5. Therefore, the CRT5 has both memories 1 and 1.
The contents of 5 and 18 can be displayed in a superimposed state.

Here, the processing performed by the main CPU 10 will be explained based on FIG. 3. This process is executed by a timer interrupt at regular intervals.

First, in step 101, the CPU 10 reads the switch signal SS, stores its contents, and performs the processing in step 102. In step 102, CPU1
0 determines whether the display state of the echo image is to be changed (normal mode or not) based on the content read in step 101. This process also determines the timing to change the display format of overwritten data such as annotations, and the specific judgment criteria are
This is based on moving the display position, changing the depth of diagnosis, changing the image format (switching the image mode, etc.), etc. If the determination in step 102 is NO, the normal mode is specified, and it is recognized that there is no need to change the position of the overwritten data, etc., and processing in steps 103 and 104 is performed. In step 103, the write position of the image signal in the frame memory 15 in the normal mode is calculated, and in step 104, the write control signal DF based on the calculation information in step 103 is sent to the echo image display control circuit 14. send to Therefore, the display control circuit 14
writes a normal mode image signal into the frame memory 15.

On the other hand, if YES in step 102, the operator's desired display mode is determined from the switch signal SS in step 105, and further, in step 106, a writing change is made to the frame memory 15 corresponding to the desired display mode. Data is calculated.

[0022] Next, the CPU 10 performs step 107,1.
Execute the output command of 08. Among these, in step 107,
A write control signal DF based on the calculated data DC at step 106 is output to the echo image display control circuit 14. As a result, an image signal is written into the frame memory 15 in response to the operator's display change command. Further, in step 108, the calculation data DC in step 106 is transferred to the character display control circuit 17 as echo image change data.

Furthermore, the processing performed by the character display control circuit 17 will be explained based on FIG. This process is also executed by timer interrupts at fixed intervals.

The character display control circuit 17 first performs step 1.
At step 21, the echo image change data DC from the main CPU 10 is read, and the process moves to step 122. In step 122, the read data DC in step 121 is
It is determined whether the position, size, etc. of the overwritten display should be changed based on the presence or absence of , and if YES, the process moves to step 123.

At step 123, the overwrite data cr currently displayed is read out. Thereafter, in step 124, it is determined whether or not overwriting is being performed based on the presence or absence of read data in step 123.

When the determination in step 124 is YES, the process moves to step 125, and the control circuit 17 uses the input data DC in step 121, that is, the frame memory 1
Based on the change data regarding writing in step 5, change data such as position information for rewriting the overwrite data cr in the character memory 18 is calculated. After this step 1
26, the contents of the character memory 18 are rewritten in accordance with the calculation data at step 125. On the other hand, if NO in step 124, the operator has erased the overwriting display by operating a switch on the switch panel, or the overwriting has not yet been performed, so do not perform the processing in steps 125 and 126. , return to the main program.

On the other hand, when the determination at step 122 is NO, it is recognized that the display position of the overwritten data is not to be changed, and the processing from step 127 onward is performed. The processing after step 127 is for normally overwriting annotations and the like. First step 127
Overwrite data c from character generator 16
r is input, and in step 128 it is determined whether overwriting data cr is input or not, thereby determining whether overwriting is to be performed. If this determination is NO, the process returns to the main program, but if the determination is YES, steps 129 and 130 are performed. In step 129, the display position of the overwrite data cr is calculated from the input data and formatted, and in step 130, the overwrite data cr is written into the character memory 18 based on the formatted position data.

In this manner, in the character display control circuit 17, the overwriting process in step 12 is performed rather than in steps 127 to 130.
Processing for changing the display position from 1 to 126 is given priority.

In this embodiment, the overwrite data whose display format is controlled by the character display control circuit 17 includes character data such as markers, measurement results, measurement marks, and auto data in addition to the annotations of the diagnostic site. included.

In this embodiment, the probe 2, the transmitting/receiving circuit 11
, A/D converter 12, and digital scan converter 13 constitute image signal generation means, and switch panel 4 and character generator 16 constitute overwrite data generation means. The switch panel also serves as display status command means. Furthermore, step 10 in FIG.
4 and 107 and the echo image display control circuit 14 form an image display control means. Furthermore, the processes of steps 103 and 106 in FIG. 3 correspond to the write information calculation means,
The processes of steps 121, 122, 127 to 130 in FIG. 3 correspond to the overwrite display control means. Further, the processes in steps 101, 102, and 105 in FIG. 3 correspond to the instruction content determining means, and the processes in step 108 in FIG. 3 and steps 121 to 126 in FIG. 4 correspond to the overwriting display changing means.

Next, the overall operation of this embodiment will be explained. An example will be explained in which the overwritten data is used as an annotation.

Now, as shown in FIG. 5(a), the probe 2
Frame and image signals of cardiac tomography obtained by operating the
At the same time, the annotation data cr of each part as overwrite data is stored in the character memory 18 by operating the switch panel 4, and the data stored in both memories 15 and 18 is stored in the adding circuit 19 and Assume that the image is displayed in a superimposed manner on the CRT 5 via the D/A converter 20. Note that the annotations in FIG. 5 are the same as those in FIG. 7 above.

From this state, it is assumed that the operator operates a switch related to ``enlargement, movement'' in the switch panel 4, for example, in order to enlarge the part of interest in the image and display the enlarged image on the right side. With this switch operation, the CPU 10 performs steps 101, 102, and 105 in FIG.
Step 106 is reached by processing step 1.
In 06, data D indicating how much to enlarge or move the image
C is calculated. Based on this calculation data DC, the echo image display control circuit 14 operates (step 107).
, the data stored in the frame memory 15 is rewritten for each pixel in accordance with the desired enlargement or movement of the image.

Along with this, the character display control circuit 17
By performing the processes in steps 121 and 122 in FIG. 4, it is determined whether the display state of the echo image is to be changed (in this case, enlarged or moved). Then, when the echo image is changed, it is further determined whether an annotation is displayed through the processing of steps 123 and 124. When an annotation is displayed based on this judgment, it is recognized that it is necessary to move the annotation. Therefore, in the control circuit 17, the enlargement of the region of interest in the echo image and the change data (position, size) of the annotation corresponding to the movement data DC are calculated (step 125).
), then the data stored in the character memory 18 is rewritten pixel by pixel using the changed data (step 126).

A composite image on the CRT 5 in which the contents of the memories 15 and 18 are superimposed is shown in FIG. 5(b). In other words, annotations (RV, LV, AO,
LA) is also moved, and the display position of the annotation is always optimally controlled. This optimal control is the same when reducing an image or simply moving it.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the position and size of overwrite data such as annotations are automatically and optimally controlled in response to changes in the echo image, thereby reducing the operator's effort in rewriting the overwrite data. is significantly reduced compared to the conventional method, and the time required to record diagnostic images is also significantly shortened.

[0037] In the above embodiment, the main CP
The processing assignments of U10 and the character display control circuit 17 are not necessarily limited to those shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and may be other appropriate assignments.

FIG. 6(b) also shows an M-mode image/image by changing the image format from the B-mode image in FIG. 6(a).
Another example in which B-mode images are displayed simultaneously is shown, in which the above-mentioned annotation position change control is applied to the B-mode images.

[0039]

[Effects of the Invention] In the present invention, when superimposing overwritten data such as annotations such as the name of a diagnostic region on an echo image obtained on a TV monitor based on an ultrasound echo signal, the When there is a change in the display state, such as enlargement, reduction, movement, etc., this change is automatically followed and the display state of the overwritten data is also changed, so there is no misalignment between the superimposed position of the echo image and the overwritten data, etc. It is possible to overwrite records with annotations, etc. without causing any problems, and it also eliminates the trouble of rewriting the overwritten data as in the past, significantly reducing the operator's operating effort and making it extremely easy to record diagnostic images. The effect is that it is easy and efficient.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a claim correspondence diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart showing an example of processing by the main CPU.

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart showing a processing example of a character display control circuit.

FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b) are explanatory diagrams showing examples of displays on the screen of the present embodiment.

FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b) are explanatory diagrams showing examples of display on the screen of another embodiment.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are explanatory diagrams showing examples of displays on a screen according to the prior art.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 Probe 3 Device body 4 Switch panel 5 CRT 10 CPU 11 Transmission/reception circuit 12 A/D converter 13 Digital scan converter 14 Echo image display control circuit 15 Frame memory 16 Character generator 17 Character display control circuit 18 Character・Memory 19 Adder circuit 20 D/A converter

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A TV monitor, a readable and writable frame memory and character memory each having a storage area corresponding to each pixel of the TV monitor, and a frame memory and a character memory that read and superimpose data stored in both memories. , a superimposed display means for displaying the superimposed data on the TV monitor, an image signal generation means for generating an image signal based on an ultrasound echo signal reflected from a diagnostic object, and the TV monitor. display state command means for commanding the display state of the echo image of the echo image according to a request of an operator; and based on the command of the display state command means, write information of the signal generated by the image signal generation means in the frame memory is calculated. an image display control means for writing the generated signal of the image signal generating means into the frame memory according to the calculation information of the write information calculating means; and data for overwriting the echo image of the TV monitor. an overwrite data creation means for creating data in response to an operator's request; an overwrite display control means for formatting the data created by the overwrite data creation means and writing it into the character memory; and a change in the command contents of the display state command means. a command content determining means for determining whether or not the command has been executed; and a command content determining means for determining whether or not the command content has changed, and when the command content determining means determines that the command content has changed, the written content in the character memory is determined according to the calculation information of the write information calculation means. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: overwriting display changing means for changing.