JPH05305084A - Ultrasonic diagnostic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely detect the saturation of the reflected echo signal by comparing the level of the reflected echo signal with the threshold value with a comparing means, and warning that the reflected echo signal is saturated with a warning means when the level of the reflected echo signal is larger than the preset threshold value based on the comparison result. CONSTITUTION:A microcomputer 11 is provided with a writing/reading controller 13, a saturation judgment section 14, and a ROM 15 storing a saturation identification mark, and the writing/reading controller 13 controls the data reading/writing timing to a video memory 8 and an overlay memory 9. The saturation judgment section 14 is inputted with the data of a video set circuit 7, and it judges whether the image data inputted to the video memory 8 are saturated or not from the most significant bit D6. When the saturation judgment section 14 judges that the image data are saturated, it outputs the saturation identification mark data stored in the ROM 15, and a saturation identification mark is displayed on a monitor 12 for warning.

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, and more particularly to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus which emits an ultrasonic beam into a living body and displays living body information of a living body on a monitor based on a reflection echo signal from the living body. The present invention relates to a sound wave diagnostic apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus sends an ultrasonic wave into a living body from an ultrasonic transducer called a probe and analyzes a reflected echo signal from the living body.
It obtains internal tissue structure and blood flow information in the living body. For example, in the B mode, a reflected echo signal from an organ boundary or a tissue is received, brightness modulation is performed according to the strength of the reflected echo signal to obtain a tomographic image, and the tomographic image is displayed. In the color Doppler mode, the Doppler signal obtained by orthogonally detecting the reflected echo signal from blood is used to obtain information on the blood flow direction and the blood flow velocity, and blue or red is colored according to the blood flow direction. The brightness of those colors is modulated and displayed according to the blood flow velocity.

In this type of ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, the reflected echo signal from the inside of the living body is extremely small, not only that reflected from the boundary of organs with a large reflectance, but also minute particles such as blood. Some are reflected by reflectance.
The difference in amplitude of the reflected echo signals from these is about 40 dB to 80 dB.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the above conventional configuration,
It is not possible to handle all the reflected echo signals having a large difference as described above, and even if the echo signal reflected with a large reflectance is saturated on the electronic circuit, the saturated portion is recognized and displayed as an image. .. Therefore, when an affected part of a layered structure such as myocardium is displayed in a B-mode image, when saturation occurs, the layered structure is collapsed, and the myocardial membrane structure is displayed as one layer, which enables accurate diagnosis. I can't do it.

In the color Doppler mode,
As mentioned above, it is necessary to analyze the reflection echo from blood with a small reflectance, but the reflection echo from other tissues with a large reflectance is superimposed on the reflection echo from blood, and the effect of the echo with a large reflectance is analyzed. It is received as it is received. When the signal having a high reflectance is saturated, the reflected echo from the superimposed blood flow is affected and accurate data cannot be received. Therefore, when coloring or converting brightness according to blood flow information, the color and brightness change, and it is not possible to determine whether the displayed data is actual data or erroneous data due to saturation, which causes a diagnostic problem. Occurs.

In order to prevent this, it is conceivable to use a processing circuit having a wide dynamic range in the signal processing. However, if a circuit having a wide dynamic range is used, a large current is required, and the price and function are reduced. There is a significant imbalance between them. An object of the present invention is to be able to reliably know when the reflected echo signal is saturated.

[0007]

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention emits an ultrasonic beam into a living body and displays living body information of a living body on a monitor based on a reflection echo signal from the inside of the living body. It is a thing. This device includes a comparison means and a warning means. The comparing means compares the level of the reflected echo signal with a predetermined threshold value. The warning means warns that the reflected echo signal is saturated based on the comparison result of the comparison means.

[0008]

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, when the ultrasonic beam is emitted into the living body and the reflected echo signal from the living body is detected, the comparison means sets the level of the reflected echo signal to the predetermined threshold. Is compared to the value. As a result of the comparison, when the level of the reflected echo signal is higher than the predetermined threshold value, the warning means warns that the reflected echo signal is saturated.

In this case, the operator can be sure that the reflected echo signal is saturated, and therefore the image due to the saturation will not be erroneously recognized, whereby accurate diagnosis can be performed. Further, when a saturation warning is generated, the gain of ultrasonic waves is lowered, and an image with maximum power without saturation can be obtained.

[0010]

FIG. 1 shows an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a diagnostic apparatus main body 1 and a probe 2 detachably attached to the diagnostic apparatus main body 1. The probe 2 is for emitting an ultrasonic beam into a living body and for receiving reflected echo. The probe 2 is connected to the beam former 3 of the diagnostic apparatus body 1. Beam former 3
Is a pulse oscillation circuit that generates a transmission trigger pulse,
It is composed of a delay control circuit, a transmission / reception circuit, and the like.
The transmission / reception circuit is provided with a transmission / reception switching circuit, an amplification circuit, a detection circuit, and the like. Beamformer 3 is A / D
It is connected to the converter 4. The A / D converter 4 converts the analog reflected echo signal output from the beam former 3 into 6-bit digital image data.

The A / D converter 4 is connected to the comparator 5 and the bit set circuit 7. A register 6 is also connected to the comparator 5. The register 6 stores a threshold value for determining whether the image data is saturated. The comparator 5 compares the threshold value stored in the register 6 with the converted image data. The output of the comparator 5 is given to the bit set circuit 7. Here, the register 6 stores, for example, 6-bit data “1” as a threshold value.
11100 ”is stored therein, and the comparator 5 outputs“ 1 ”when the image data is larger than the threshold value stored in the register 6, and otherwise outputs“ 0 ”.

The bit set circuit 7 is a 7-bit register, and the lower 6 bits D _{0 to} D ₅ store the image data converted into a digital value by the A / D converter 4. The output of the comparator 5 is stored in the most significant bit D ₆ . That is, in this bit set circuit 7, digital data (image data) of the reflected echo signal is obtained.
, And a bit indicating whether or not it is saturated is added to generate 7-bit image data.

The bit set circuit 7 is a video memory 8 which constitutes a digital scan converter (DSC).
And to the microcomputer 11. DS
C includes an overlay memory 9 in addition to the video memory 8. The overlay memory 9 is a memory for temporarily storing, for example, data of an identification mark indicating saturation described later.

The microcomputer 11 writes / writes
The read control unit 13, the saturation determination unit 14, and the ROM 15 for storing the saturation identification mark are provided. A keyboard 16 is connected to the microcomputer 11. The write / read controller 13 controls the video memory 8
And the timing of reading and writing data to and from the overlay memory 9. Data of the bit set circuit 7 is input to the saturation determination unit 14, and the most significant bit D ₆ determines whether the image data input to the video memory 8 is saturated. The saturation determination unit 14
When it is determined that the image data is saturated, the saturation identification mark data stored in the ROM 15 is output to the overlay memory 9.

The output of the video memory 8 and the output of the overlay memory 9 are summed by the adder 10 and displayed on the monitor 12. Next, the operation of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus configured as described above will be described. The operation of emitting an ultrasonic beam, receiving the reflected echo, processing the reflected echo signal to convert it into digital data, and obtaining digital image data is similar to the conventional normal operation. Therefore, the description of the operation until obtaining the image data is omitted here.

When digital image data is obtained, the obtained image data is given to the bit set circuit 7 and the comparator 5. The comparator 5 compares the threshold value with saturation stored in the register 6 and outputs the comparison result to the bit set circuit 7. In the bit set circuit 7,
The input digital image data and the output of the comparator 5 are combined to obtain 7-bit image data. The obtained 7-bit image data is supplied to the video memory 8 and the saturation judgment unit 14.

The saturation judgment section 14 extracts the most significant bit D ₆ of the obtained image data and extracts the most significant bit D _6.
It is determined whether ₆ is “1”. When the most significant bit D ₆ is "1", it is judged that the obtained digital image data is saturated. When the saturation determination unit 14 determines that the digital image data is saturated, R
The saturation identification mark is read from the OM 15 and the read data is output to the overlay memory 9. The overlay memory 9 has a structure capable of storing data for one frame, and stores a saturation identification mark near the position of the same address as the address of the data written in the video memory 8. Then, under the control of the write / read controller 13, the image data and the data stored in the overlay memory 9 are output to the adder 10. The data combined here is displayed on the monitor 12.

FIG. 2 shows an example of display on the monitor 12. Here, the B-mode image of the heart is displayed as a monochrome image with about 64 gradations. Here, a high-luminance (white) portion due to saturation occurs on the side wall of the left atrium of the heart, and the saturation identification mark WD is displayed at that portion to warn that saturation has occurred. This makes it easy to determine that this part is not due to the actual image of the heart but due to the effect of saturation.

[Other Embodiments] (a) In the above embodiment, an example of saturation in the B-mode image is shown. However, in the color Doppler mode and other modes as well, a similar display warns that the image is saturated. be able to. For example, in the case of a color Doppler mode image, the direction of blood flow is usually indicated by red or blue, and the magnitude of velocity is indicated by the gradation thereof, but for saturated portions, white or yellow or other red or Saturation can be warned by displaying in a color other than blue. Further, this may indicate a saturated portion by using an arrow or the like to warn the saturation. (B) In the above embodiment, the overlay memory 9 stores data indicating a saturated state, but other memory such as a character memory may be used.

[0020]

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, the level of the reflected echo signal is compared with a predetermined threshold value and the comparison result warns that the reflected echo signal is saturated. In the diagnosis, it is possible to immediately determine whether or not the reflected echo signal is saturated, and it is possible to obtain a highly reliable diagnostic image. Further, when a large amount of saturation occurs, it is possible to obtain a diagnostic image with the maximum power that does not saturate by lowering the ultrasonic output or lowering the amplification gain.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the display.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 diagnostic device main body 2 probe 5 comparator 6 register 7 bit set circuit 9 overlay memory 14 saturation determination unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for emitting an ultrasonic beam into a living body and displaying biological information of the living body on a monitor based on the reflected echo signal from the inside of the living body, the level of the reflected echo signal. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is provided with: a comparing unit that compares the value with a predetermined threshold value; and a warning unit that warns that the reflected echo signal is saturated based on the comparison result of the comparing unit.