JPH05137728A - Three-dimensional image generating method in ultrasonic diagnostic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To more exactly and satisfactorily generate and display a shape of a blood-vessel inner wall and a myocardium inner wall as a three-dimensional image, in the ultrasonic diagnostic device. CONSTITUTION:By utilizing black-and-white tomographic images I1-In generated by emitting an ultrasonic beam to a body to be examined, and also, receiving an echo signal reflected from the body to be examined concerned and a color flow mapping image, ultrasonic images of a plural slice portion obtained by coloring blood flow parts B1-Bn are generated, and by using these ultrasonic images, a boundary of the parts (B1-Bn) in which a blood flow exists and the part in which the blood flow does not exist is detected. In this case, the part in which the blood flow exists is colored, therefore, the boundary to the part in which the blood flow does not exist can clearly be detected. Subsequently, this detected boundary is set as inner wall surfaces (W1-Wn) and by connecting the data of these inner wall surfaces by a plural slice portion, a three- dimensional image W is obtained. In such a way, a shape of a blood-vessel inner wall and a myocardium inner wall, etc., can more exactly and satisfactorily be displayed as the three-dimensional image.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for obtaining a tomographic image of a diagnostic region of a subject by using ultrasonic waves, and the shape of the inner wall of a blood vessel or the inner wall of myocardium can be more accurately and better as a three-dimensional image. The present invention relates to a method for creating a three-dimensional image that can be created and displayed in the.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to create a three-dimensional image of a certain diagnostic region in a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, black and white tomographic images (B-mode images) of, for example, several tens of slices are collected for the diagnostic region, and these three-dimensional images are collected. Detect the boundaries of blood vessel walls and myocardial walls that appear to shine brightly on a black-and-white tomographic image by using an image processing method called edge extraction, and use these three-dimensional image creation methods such as the voxel method to create data for these boundaries Three-dimensional images of blood vessels, hearts, etc. were created by joining them together.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional three-dimensional image forming method, the black and white tomographic image acquired by the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus has multiple echoes and acoustic directivity characteristics of ultrasonic waves. A virtual image such as an artifact due to side lobes may be generated, or the boundary data in the edge extraction may be lost due to an inappropriate gain setting for signal acquisition. In any of the above cases, the boundaries such as the blood vessel wall and the myocardial wall cannot be clearly recognized, and the boundary detection by the edge extraction may not be performed well. Therefore, the three-dimensional image of the blood vessel or the heart may not be created accurately.

Therefore, the present invention addresses such problems, and a three-dimensional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of more accurately and satisfactorily creating and displaying the shape of the inner wall of a blood vessel or the inner wall of a myocardium as a three-dimensional image. The purpose is to provide a method for creating an image.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a three-dimensional image creating method in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention launches an ultrasonic beam toward a subject and reflects it from the subject. The echo signal is received to create a black and white tomographic image of the diagnosis site, and at the same time, the blood flow component is detected using the Doppler effect or the MTI filter that detects the moving target from the reflected echo signal, and that part is colored and displayed. Create a color flow mapping image to create an ultrasonic image of multiple slices colored the blood flow part using these black and white tomographic image and color flow mapping image, and use these ultrasonic images The boundary between the part with blood flow and the part without blood flow is detected, and this boundary is used as the inner wall surface, and the data of this inner wall surface are joined together for multiple slices to form a three-dimensional image.
A three-dimensional ultrasonic image is created by converting this three-dimensional image into an image viewed from a predetermined angle direction for display on a television monitor.

[0006]

[Operation] The three-dimensional image creating method configured in this way is
Utilizing a black and white tomographic image and a color flow mapping image created by receiving an echo signal reflected from the subject together with launching an ultrasonic beam toward the subject, a plurality of slices with colored blood flow portions An ultrasonic image is created, and the boundary between a portion with blood flow and a portion without blood flow is detected using these ultrasonic images. In this case, since the portion with blood flow is colored, the boundary with the portion without blood flow can be clearly detected. Then, the detected boundary is used as an inner wall surface, and the data of the inner wall surface are joined together for a plurality of slices to form a three-dimensional image. As a result, the shape of the inner wall of the blood vessel or the inner wall of the myocardium can be created and displayed more accurately and satisfactorily as a three-dimensional image.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining an embodiment of a three-dimensional image creating method in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus used for carrying out the three-dimensional image creating method. It is a figure.

First, as shown in FIG. 2, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus used for carrying out the method of the present invention has a probe 1, an ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving section 2, a black and white tomographic image forming circuit 3, and a color flow. Mapping image (hereinafter referred to as “CFM image”) creation circuit 4
And the image memory 5 and the first television signal generation circuit 6a
A color display first television monitor 7a, a three-dimensional image calculation creating circuit 8 and a second television signal creating circuit 6b.
And a second television monitor 7b displaying black and white, and a control circuit 9
And.

The probe 1 is for mechanically or electronically performing linear scanning, sector scanning or the like to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves toward the subject. A vibrator that is a source of sound waves and receives reflected echoes is built in. The ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving unit 2 drives the probe 1 to generate ultrasonic waves and amplifies a signal of a reflected echo received, and although not shown, a pulser for sending a drive pulse to the probe 1 is provided. And a preamplifier for amplifying the reflected echo signal received by the probe 1. The black-and-white tomographic image creating circuit 3 inputs the reflected echo signal output from the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving section 2 and converts it into a digital signal to create a black-and-white tomographic image (B-mode image) of a diagnostic region. Further, the CFM image forming circuit 4 detects a blood flow component by using a Doppler effect or an MTI filter that detects a moving object using the reflected echo signal input from the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving unit 2, and the color is detected in that portion. A CFM image to be displayed with is attached is created, and the signal is converted into a digital amount and output. Then, the image memory 5 inputs the data of the black and white tomographic image and the CFM image created as described above, and creates and stores an ultrasonic image of several tens of slices in which the blood flow portion is colored. Thus, it has a storage capacity of several tens of frames.

The first television signal generation circuit 6a inputs the ultrasonic image data read from the image memory 5 and converts it into a television signal (analog video signal) for image display. The first television monitor 7a is for inputting the television signal from the first television signal generating circuit 6a to display an ultrasonic image in which the blood flow portion is colored, and is composed of a color display CRT. ..

Further, the three-dimensional image calculation creating circuit 8 detects the boundary between the part with blood flow and the part without blood flow by using the data of the ultrasonic image read from the image memory 5 and whether or not there is coloring. Is used as the inner wall of the blood vessel, and the data of the inner wall of the blood vessel are connected by a voxel method for a plurality of slices to create a three-dimensional image. Also,
The second television signal creating circuit 6b inputs the data of the three-dimensional image output from the three-dimensional image operation creating circuit 8 and displays a television signal (analog video signal) for image display.
Is to be converted to. And the second TV monitor 7
Reference numeral b indicates a television signal input from the second television signal generating circuit 6b to display, for example, a three-dimensional image of the inner wall of the blood vessel, which is composed of a monochrome CRT.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 9 is a control circuit for controlling the operation of each of the above-mentioned components, which is composed of, for example, a CPU.

Next, a three-dimensional image forming method executed by using the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus constructed as above will be described with reference to FIG. First, the probe 1 is driven by the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving unit 2 shown in FIG. 2, and as shown in FIG. The tomographic images I ₁ , I ₂ , ..., In for several tens of slices are imaged. At this time, for the blood flow portions B ₁ , B ₂ , ..., Bn of the tomographic images I _{1 to} In, the blood flow components are detected by using, for example, the Doppler effect, and the CFM image creation circuit 4 shown in FIG. A CFM image for displaying the blood flow portions B _{1 to} Bn with colors is created.

Each of the tomographic images I _{1 to} I thus obtained
As shown in FIG. 1 (b), n is colored only in the blood flow portions B _{1 to} Bn in the blood vessel 10, and their image data is stored in the image memory 5 shown in FIG. 2. After that, the image data of the tomographic images I _{1 to} In are read out from the image memory 5 and loaded into the three-dimensional image calculation creation circuit 8 shown in FIG. Then, by the three-dimensional image calculation creation circuit 8,
The data of each of the tomographic images I _{1 to} In are processed to detect the boundaries between the portions with blood flow (B _{1 to} Bn) and the surrounding portions without blood flow, and these boundaries are used as the tomographic images I ₁ interior vessel wall W _1, W ₂ in the -In, ..., and Wn. Furthermore, FIG.
As shown in (b), data of these blood vessel inner walls W _{1 to} Wn are taken out, and several tens of slices are connected by a three-dimensional image creating method such as the voxel method. As a result, a three-dimensional image W of the inner wall of the blood vessel is created.

Next, a three-dimensional image W of the inner wall of the blood vessel is shown in FIG.
In order to display the image on the second television monitor 7b shown in, the image is converted into an image viewed from a predetermined angle direction diagonally forward.
Thereby, as shown in FIG. 1B, a three-dimensional ultrasonic image I for displaying the three-dimensional image W of the inner wall of the blood vessel with depth is created. After that, the image data created in this way and output from the three-dimensional image calculation creating circuit 8 is input to the second TV monitor 7b via the second TV signal creating circuit 6b, and the screen displays the inner wall of the blood vessel. The three-dimensional image W is displayed.

[0016] Incidentally, as shown in FIG. 1 (b), using the data of the detected blood vessel inner wall W ₁ wn for each tomographic image I ₁ -In, the circumference of the vessel 10 and the specifications, such as the cross-sectional area It can also be automatically measured. Further, in FIG. 1, a case has been described in which the inner wall of the blood vessel 10 is detected and a three-dimensional image W of the blood vessel inner wall is created and displayed. However, for example, the inner wall of the heart is also created and displayed by a similar method. can do.

[0017]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above,
Using a black and white tomographic image and a CFM image created by receiving an echo signal reflected from the subject while emitting an ultrasonic beam toward the subject, ultrasonic waves for a plurality of slices in which a blood flow portion is colored An image can be created, and the boundary between the portion with blood flow and the portion without blood flow can be detected using these ultrasonic images. In this case, since the portion with blood flow is colored, the boundary with the portion without blood flow can be clearly detected. Then, the detected boundary is used as an inner wall surface, and the data of the inner wall surface are joined together for a plurality of slices to form a three-dimensional image. As a result, the shape of the inner wall of the blood vessel or the inner wall of the myocardium can be created and displayed more accurately and satisfactorily as a three-dimensional image.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining an embodiment of a three-dimensional image creating method in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus used for carrying out the three-dimensional image creating method.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Probe, 2 ... Ultrasonic wave transmission / reception part, 3 ... Monochrome tomographic image creation circuit, 4 ... CFM image creation circuit, 5 ... Image memory, 6a, 6b ... Television signal creation circuit, 7a, 7b
... TV monitor, 8 ... Three-dimensional image calculation creation circuit, 9
... control circuit, 10 ... vessel, I ₁ -In ... tomogram, B ₁
~Bn ... blood flow portion, W ₁ ~Wn ... the inner wall of a blood vessel, W ... blood vessel inner wall of the three-dimensional image.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic beam is emitted toward a subject and an echo signal reflected from the subject is received to create a black-and-white tomographic image of a diagnostic region, and at the same time, a Doppler effect or a moving target is obtained from the reflected echo signal. A blood flow component is detected by using the MTI filter for detecting the color flow, and a color flow mapping image for displaying the part with a color is created, and the black and white tomographic image and the color flow mapping image are used to detect the blood flow part. Create ultrasonic images of multiple colored slices, use these ultrasonic images to detect the boundary between the area with blood flow and the area without blood flow, and use this boundary as the inner wall surface to obtain data for this inner wall surface. Three-dimensional ultrasonic image is created by connecting multiple slices into a three-dimensional image and converting this three-dimensional image into an image viewed from a predetermined angle direction for display on a TV monitor. A method for creating a three-dimensional image in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising: