JPH05220149A - Ultrasonic diagnostic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce cost by decreasing the number of frame memories without lowering a frame rate, and also, without deteriorating the picture quality, in the ultrasonic diagnostic device for obtaining a zoom image of a deep part by a high frame rate. CONSTITUTION:This device is provided with a data converting circuit 12 for inputting plural pieces of parallel beam data from a Y direction polar coordinate converting circuit 6, compressing the respective beam data in the time beam direction within a prescribed cycle speed and outputting them by arranging them in series in one line, on an output side of the Y direction polar coordinate converting circuit 6 and in a pre-stage of a frame memory 7. In such a way, the beam data of a plural piece portion can be written simultaneously in one piece of frame memory 7, and a zoom image in a deep part of a diagnostic part can be obtained by a high frame rate and a high picture quality without increasing the number of frame memories 7. Accordingly, the cost of the device can be reduced.

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 which obtains an ultrasonic tomographic image of a diagnostic region inside a subject using ultrasonic waves and a zoom image of a deep portion at a high frame rate, and more particularly to a frame rate. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of reducing the number of frame memories and reducing costs without degrading image quality and without degrading image quality.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of this type is a sector type or convex type probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves in a subject, and an ultrasonic wave for controlling the probe to transmit ultrasonic waves. And a reflection echo detection section for detecting a reflection echo signal from the received reflection wave signal, an A / D converter for digitizing the reflection echo signal from this reflection echo detection section, and an A / D converter A buffer memory that stores image data, an r / θ interpolation circuit that performs r / θ interpolation from the beam data of a plurality of directions output from the buffer memory, and embeds interpolated beam data between the beams of the plurality of directions, and this r A circuit for converting the parallel multiple beam data output from the / θ interpolation circuit in the Y direction into a polar coordinate, and a frame memory for storing the data converted by the Y direction polar coordinate conversion circuit. A circuit for polarizing the output data from the frame memory in the X direction, a circuit for controlling the X direction polar coordinate conversion circuit and the Y direction polar coordinate conversion circuit to perform zoom processing, and output data from the X direction polar coordinate conversion circuit. And an image display unit for converting the image signal into a video signal and displaying it as an image.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, if the frame rate is increased in order to obtain a zoom image of the deep portion of the diagnostic region at a high frame rate, the beam interval becomes too wide and the image quality is increased. There was a problem that the deterioration became large. In order to solve this, if, for example, four output data are created by an r / θ interpolating circuit that performs r / θ interpolation from the beam data output from the buffer memory in two directions and embeds the interpolated beam data, It was not possible to simultaneously write such four beam data in one frame memory. In this case, simultaneous writing is possible if the number of frame memories is increased to, for example, four, but if this is done, the number of parts will increase and the cost will increase.

Therefore, the present invention deals with such a problem, and the ultrasonic diagnosis capable of reducing the cost by reducing the number of frame memories without lowering the frame rate and without degrading the image quality. The purpose is to provide a device.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention includes a probe which is formed in a sector type or a convex type and which transmits and receives ultrasonic waves in a subject, and this probe. A reflection echo detection unit that controls a tentacle to transmit an ultrasonic wave and detects a reflection echo signal from a received reflection signal, and an A / D converter that digitizes the reflection echo signal from the reflection echo detection unit. And this A /
A buffer memory that stores the image data from the D converter, and r / θ interpolation that performs the r / θ interpolation from the beam data of the plurality of directions output from the buffer memory and embeds the interpolated beam data between the beams of the plurality of directions. A circuit, a circuit for polar coordinate conversion of a plurality of parallel beam data output from the r / θ interpolation circuit in the Y direction, a frame memory for storing the data converted by the Y direction polar coordinate conversion circuit, and the frame memory Of the output data from the X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit, a circuit for controlling the X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit and the Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit to perform zoom processing, and an image of the output data from the X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit. In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including an image display unit for converting into a signal and displaying it as an image, a Y A data conversion circuit is provided that inputs a plurality of parallel beam data from the polar coordinate conversion circuit, compresses each beam data in the time axis direction within a predetermined cycle speed, and arranges them in series within one line for output. is there.

[0006]

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus constructed as described above, the data conversion circuit provided at the output side of the Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit in the preceding stage of the frame memory outputs a plurality of parallel parallel signals output from the Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit. Beam data of a book is input, and each beam data is compressed in a predetermined cycle speed in the time axis direction and arranged in series in one line to be output. With this, it is possible to simultaneously write a plurality of beam data to one frame memory, and it is possible to obtain a zoom image of a deep portion of a diagnostic region with a high frame rate and high image quality without increasing the number of frame memories. it can.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention. This ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus uses ultrasonic waves to obtain a tomographic image of a diagnostic region inside a subject and a zoom image of a deep portion at a high frame rate. Reflected echo detector 2 and first and second A / D converters 3a and 3b
, The first and second buffer memories 4a and 4b, and r /
It has a θ interpolation circuit 5, a Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 6, a frame memory 7, an X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 8, a zoom control circuit 9, a display circuit 10, and a television monitor 11.
Further, the data conversion circuit 12 is provided.

The probe 1 emits an ultrasonic wave toward a diagnostic site in the subject and receives a reflected wave thereof. Although not shown, it is a source of the ultrasonic wave and is reflected. A transducer that receives waves is built in, and is formed in a sector type or a convex type that emits an ultrasonic beam in a substantially fan shape. The reflection echo detection unit 2 controls the probe 1 to transmit an ultrasonic wave and detect a reflection echo signal from the received reflected wave signal. Although not shown, a pulse generator is provided inside the reflection echo signal. And a receiving amplifier and their control circuits.

First and second A / D converters 3a and 3b
Is for inputting the reflected echo signal output from the reflected echo detector 2 and converting it into a digital signal.
The first and second buffer memories 4a and 4b respectively receive the tomographic image data output from the first and second A / D converters 3a and 3b and temporarily store them. .. In this embodiment, the A / D converter and the buffer memory are provided in two lines in parallel so that the beam data in the two simultaneous directions output from the reflection echo detector 2 are simultaneously received in parallel. This is to increase the frame rate.

The r / θ interpolating circuit 5 performs r / θ interpolation from the beam data in the two simultaneous directions output from the first and second buffer memories 4a and 4b to interpolate the beams in the two directions. It embeds data. Here, the state of data interpolation by the r / θ interpolation circuit 5 is
This will be described with reference to FIG. First, as shown in FIG. 2A, the state of the input beam data is the beam data obtained by the first transmission / reception of ultrasonic waves, for example, A ₁ and B ₁ 2
, The beam data obtained by the second transmission / reception of ultrasonic waves is, for example, two directions A ₂ and B ₂ , and the beam data obtained at the nth time is the two directions An and Bn. Next, in this state, for example, r / θ interpolation is performed using the beam data A ₁ and B ₁ obtained in the first time. That is, FIG.
As shown in (b), the beams A ₁ and B _{1 in the} two directions are set as raw data, for example, beam data a ₁ and c _1, and r between the beam data a ₁ and c _{1 in} the two directions. / Θ
Interpolated beam data b ₁ and d ₁ obtained by interpolation are embedded to form, for example, beam data of 4 lines in parallel. Thereafter, similarly, r / θ interpolation is performed using the beam data A ₂ and B ₂ obtained in the second time, and the beam data An and Bn obtained in the nth time are sequentially r / θ. Interpolation beam data is sequentially embedded by performing θ interpolation, and the beam data is, for example, twice as many as the beam data before interpolation. At this time, since the data on each beam has not yet undergone polar coordinate conversion, it remains in a state of being sampled at high speed.

The Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 6 converts the beam data of, for example, four parallel lines output from the r / θ interpolation circuit 5 into Y-direction polar coordinates. That is, FIG.
A plurality of beam data input at different angles as shown in (a) can be obtained by changing the sampling speed depending on the angle of each beam as shown in (b) of the figure.
In the X and Y polar coordinates, coordinate conversion is performed only in the Y direction. And the frame memory 7
Stores the data converted and output by the Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 6.

The X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 8 inputs the output data from the frame memory 7 and performs polar coordinate conversion in the X direction. That is, as shown in FIG. 4A, polar coordinate conversion is performed in the Y direction, and the frame memory 7
The data read from and input from the device is subjected to coordinate conversion in the X direction, in other words, in the display line direction of the television, as shown in FIG. The zoom control circuit 9 controls the Y direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 6 and the X direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 8 to perform zoom processing.
The frame memory 7 can perform zoom processing of an image without any influence.

Further, the display circuit 10 receives the output data from the X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 8 and interpolates it in the display line direction of the television, and at the same time converts it into a video signal by analog conversion. Is provided with a D / A converter and a video signal converter. The television monitor 11 receives the video signal output from the display circuit 10 and displays it as an image. The display circuit 10 and the television monitor 11 form an image display section.

Here, in the present invention, a data conversion circuit 12 is provided at the output side of the Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 6 in the preceding stage of the frame memory 7. The data conversion circuit 12 receives, for example, four beam data output from the Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 6, compresses each beam data in the time axis direction within a predetermined cycle speed, and serializes them within one line. Is output side by side. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, four beam data a ₁ , b ₁ , c ₁ and d ₁ are input and control signals S ₁ and S ₂ for data selection sent from a control circuit (not shown) are input. Is controlled by the input of the above-mentioned, and is converted into one output data D.

Next, the operation of the data conversion circuit 12 will be described with reference to FIG. First, in the data conversion circuit 12, as shown in FIGS. 6A to 6D, data a ₁₁ and b in the constant depth direction with respect to the four line directions during a predetermined cycle T at equal intervals. ₁₁ , ₁₁ , and ₁₁ are input in parallel. At this time, the data conversion circuit 12 is set in FIG.
As shown in (e) and (f), two control signals S ₁ and S ₂ for data selection are input, and the above cycle T is divided into four equal to T / 4 by a combination of these signals. The cycle speed of is created (compression ratio 1/4). next,
Within the cycle speed T / 4 created in this way, each of the data a ₁₁ , b ₁₁ , c ₁₁ , d ₁₁ is compressed in the time axis direction, and as shown in FIG. It is output as data D arranged in series.

After that, the output data D converted as described above is input to the frame memory 7 shown in FIG. Now, in FIG. 6, assuming that the predetermined cycle T has m sections, the output data D input to the frame memory 7 will be written in a time of T × m, and if the number of beams for one scanning is n, The beam data for one scan is written in the time of T × m × n. Therefore, the data including the four beam data a ₁ , b ₁ , c ₁ and d ₁ can be simultaneously written into _one frame memory 7. Then, data is read from the frame memory 7 in real time at a time different from the above writing and sent to the X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit 8 shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an essential part showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the data conversion circuit 12
a and 12b are provided in parallel, and the frame memories 7a and 7b are connected in parallel to the respective output sides. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the compression rate of the data write cycle speed is 1/4. , The compression ratio is 1
/ 2. That is, as shown in FIG.
The four beam data a ₁ , b ₁ , c ₁ , d ₁ are input in parallel to the two data conversion circuits 12a, 12b, and a control signal S ₁ for data selection sent from a control circuit (not shown) is sent. , S ₂ is controlled by the input of each data conversion circuit 1
2a and 12b are converted into _one output data D ₁ and D ₂ , respectively.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, in each of the data conversion circuits 12a and 12b, as shown in FIGS. 9A to 9D, data a in a constant depth direction with respect to four line directions during a predetermined cycle T at equal intervals. ₁₁ , b ₁₁ , c ₁₁ , d
₁₁ inputs in parallel. At this time, two data selection control signals S ₁ and S ₂ are input to the respective data conversion circuits 12a and 12b as shown in FIGS. By combining the above, the cycle T is divided into two and a cycle speed of T / 2 is created (compression rate 1/2). Next, within the cycle speed T / 2 created in this way, each of the data a ₁₁ , b ₁₁ ,
c ₁₁ and d ₁₁ are compressed in the time axis direction, and the first data conversion circuit 12a outputs the data a ₁₁ and c _{11 as} shown in FIG. 9 (g).
_The data is output as data D ₁ arranged in series in ₁₁ and 1 line, and in the second data conversion circuit 12b, data b ₁₁ and d ₁₁ are arranged in series in 1 line as shown in FIG. 9 (h). It is output as data D ₂ .

After that, the output data D ₁ and D ₂ converted as described above are input to the first frame memory 7a or the second frame memory 7b, respectively, as shown in FIG. Also in this case, in FIG. 9, the predetermined cycle T
If there are m sections, each of the frame memories 7a, 7a
The respective output data D ₁ and D ₂ input to b are T × m
Therefore, the beam data for one scan is written in the time of T × m × n, where n is the number of beams for one scan. In this embodiment, since the compression rate of the cycle speed is as small as 1/2, it is possible to shorten the time of the cycle T as compared with the embodiment of FIG.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, two systems of A / D converters 3a and 3b and buffer memories 4a and 4b are provided in parallel, and the simultaneous output of two signals from the reflection echo detector 2 is performed.
Although the case where the beam data of the directions is simultaneously received in parallel is shown, the present invention is not limited to this, and only one system may be provided with the A / D converter and the buffer memory. in this case,
In order to obtain the beam data in a plurality of directions to be input to the r / θ interpolation circuit 5, the time between the previous beam and the subsequent beam will be slightly different.

[0021]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above,
The data conversion circuit provided on the output side of the Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit in the preceding stage of the frame memory inputs a plurality of parallel beam data output from the Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit, and sets each beam data to a predetermined value. It can be compressed in the time axis direction within the cycle speed and arranged in series within one line and output. With this, it is possible to simultaneously write a plurality of beam data to one frame memory, and it is possible to obtain a zoom image of a deep portion of a diagnostic region with a high frame rate and high image quality without increasing the number of frame memories. it can. Therefore, it is possible to prevent an increase in size and reduce cost without increasing the number of frame memories.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an interpolation operation in an r / θ interpolation circuit,

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a polar coordinate conversion operation in a Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit;

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a polar coordinate conversion operation in an X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a control state of a data conversion circuit,

FIG. 6 is a timing diagram for explaining the operation in the data conversion circuit,

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a main part showing a second embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a control state of a data conversion circuit in the second embodiment,

FIG. 9 is a timing diagram for explaining the operation in the data conversion circuit according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Probe, 2 ... Reflected echo detector, 3a, 3b ...
A / D converter, 4a, 4b ... Buffer memory, 5 ...
r / θ interpolation circuit, 6 ... Y direction polar coordinate conversion circuit, 7,
7a, 7b ... Frame memory, 8 ... X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit, 9 ... Zoom control circuit, 10 ... Display circuit, 1
1 ... Television monitor, 12, 12a, 12b ... Data conversion circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A probe formed into a sector type or a convex type for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves in a subject, and a probe for controlling the probe to transmit ultrasonic waves and a reflected echo from a signal of a reflected wave received. A reflection echo detecting section for detecting a signal, an A / D converter for digitizing a reflection echo signal from the reflection echo detecting section, a buffer memory for storing image data from the A / D converter, and this buffer An r / θ interpolation circuit that performs r / θ interpolation from the beam data of a plurality of directions output from the memory to embed the interpolated beam data between the beams of a plurality of directions, and a plurality of parallel lines output from the r / θ interpolation circuit. Circuit for converting the beam data of the above into polar coordinates in the Y direction, a frame memory for storing the data converted by this Y direction polar coordinate conversion circuit, and output data from this frame memory. A circuit that converts polar coordinates in the X direction,
A circuit that controls the X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit and the Y-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit to perform zoom processing, and an image display unit that converts the output data from the X-direction polar coordinate conversion circuit into a video signal and displays it as an image. In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having the above, a plurality of parallel beam data from the Y direction polar coordinate conversion circuit are input to the preceding stage of the frame memory, and each beam data is compressed in the time axis direction within a predetermined cycle speed. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is provided with a data conversion circuit that outputs the data arranged in series in one line.