JPH05317315A - Ultrasonic tomographic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect the travel distance in response to the actual motion of an organ and to color-display the same by detecting the outline of a binarized image to store plural outline images, comparing plural outline images of different time phases in a comparing and coloring circuit, and detecting the travel of the outline to apply a color signal to the moving part. CONSTITUTION:Binarized image creating and storing means 9, 10 binarize image data input from black-and-white image memories 5, 6 and store the obtained binarized image. Outline image detecting and storing means 11, 12, 13 detect the outline of the binarized image input from the binarized image creating and storing means 9, 10 and store the obtained plural outline images. A comparing and coloring circuit 14 compares plural outline images of different time phases read out from the outline image detecting means 11, 12, 13 and detects the travel of the outline to apply a color signal to a moving part. Thus, concerning the moving diagnosed region, the travel distance corresponding to the actual motion of an organ can be detected and color-displayed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic tomographic apparatus for constructing and displaying a tomographic image of a diagnostic region of a subject by using ultrasonic waves, and particularly to an ultrasonic tomographic device for a moving diagnostic region such as heart. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic tomography device capable of detecting a moving amount corresponding to a movement and displaying it in color.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional ultrasonic tomography apparatus includes a probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a subject, and an ultrasonic wave for driving the probe to generate ultrasonic waves and amplifying a received reflected echo signal. A transmission / reception unit, a signal processing unit for inputting a reflected echo signal from the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit to reproduce a tomographic image, and an image storage unit for digitizing an output signal from the signal processing unit and storing image data. And an image display unit that converts the image data from the image storage unit into a video signal and displays the video signal. Then, in such an ultrasonic tomography apparatus, in order to grasp the amount of movement of a moving diagnostic site, the operator visually observes the image displayed on the image display unit and The moving image and the moving image are stored in the head, and the images of both images are compared to grasp the movement and movement amount of, for example, the valve of the heart.

However, in the inspection method as described above,
The operator's extensive experience and skill are required, and accurate and quick inspection is difficult. To cope with this, a device that uses a plurality of images with different time phases, performs a difference calculation between two images of the front and back time phases, and displays the obtained difference image on the screen of the image display unit, It is proposed in JP-A-62-189054.

[0004]

However, in the ultrasonic tomography apparatus described in the above publication, it is possible to extract and display only the component of the motion of an image of a motion of the heart or the like. Since the difference image is displayed by obtaining the brightness difference, for example, the difference image value becomes equal to each other when a weak signal moves a lot and when a strong signal moves a little. was there. At this time, the former motion evaluation and the latter motion evaluation are almost indistinguishable from each other, and they are displayed as similar motions on the image.
That is, it may be evaluated as something different from the actual movement of an organ or the like, and an incorrect image may be displayed as an image showing the movement state. Therefore, accurate diagnostic information may not be obtained.

In view of the above, the present invention addresses such a problem, and an ultrasonic tomographic device capable of detecting the amount of movement corresponding to the actual movement of an organ in a diagnostic region having a movement such as the heart and displaying it in color. The purpose is to provide a device.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an ultrasonic tomography apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a subject, and driving the probe to generate ultrasonic waves. An ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving unit that generates and amplifies the received reflected echo signal, a signal processing unit that inputs the reflected echo signal from this ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving unit and performs a reproduction process of a tomographic image, and an output from this signal processing unit An ultrasonic tomography apparatus comprising an image storage unit for digitizing a signal to store image data and an image display unit for converting the image data from the image storage unit into a video signal for display. A binarized image creating / storing means for storing the binarized image obtained by inputting the image data from the section to binarize
A contour image detecting and storing means for inputting the binarized image from the binarizing image creating and storing means to detect the contour of the image and storing a plurality of the obtained contour images, and the contour image detecting and storing means. And a comparative coloring circuit for comparing a plurality of contour images of different time phases read from each other, detecting a movement amount of the contour, and giving a color signal to the moving portion.

[0007]

The ultrasonic tomography apparatus configured as described above inputs the image data read from the image storage unit by the binarized image creating / storing means, binarizes it, and stores the obtained binarized image. In addition, the contour image detection and storage means 2
The binarized image read out from the binarized image creating / storing means is input to detect the contour of the image, and a plurality of the obtained contour images are stored. It operates to compare a plurality of read contour images of different time phases, detect the movement amount of the contour, and give a color signal to the moving portion. As a result, it is possible to detect the amount of movement corresponding to the actual movement of the organ and display it in color with respect to a moving diagnostic site such as the heart.

[0008]

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 tomography apparatus according to the present invention. This ultrasonic tomography apparatus uses ultrasonic waves to form and display a tomographic image of a diagnostic region of a subject, and as shown in the figure, the probe 1 is used.
An ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving section 2, a signal processing section 3, an A / D converter 4, first and second black and white image memories 5, 6, a television signal creating circuit 7, and a television monitor 8. Further, the binarized image creating / storing means (9, 10), the contour image detecting / storing means (11, 12, 13), and the comparative coloring circuit 14
And. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 15 indicates a CPU (central processing unit) for controlling the operation of each of the above components.

The probe 1 mechanically or electronically performs beam scanning to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves to a subject. Although not shown, the probe 1 is a source of ultrasonic waves. A transducer that receives the reflected echo is built in.
The ultrasonic wave transmission / reception unit 2 sends a drive pulse to the probe 1 to generate ultrasonic waves and amplifies the received reflected echo signal. A transmission delay circuit, a reception amplifier, a reception delay circuit, etc. are built in.

The signal processing unit 3 receives the reflected echo signal output from the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving unit 2 and performs a reproduction process of a tomographic image. A gain correction circuit, a log compression circuit, a detection circuit, a filter processing circuit, etc. are built in. Then, the probe 1 and the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 2 scan an ultrasonic beam in a certain direction in the body of the subject, and the received reflected echo signal is processed by the signal processing unit 3 to obtain one slice. I'm supposed to get a statue.

The A / D converter 4 inputs the image signal output from the signal processing section 3 and converts it into a digital signal. The first and second black-and-white image memories 5 and 6 store digital image data from the A / D converter 4, and a binary image memory 10 to be described later.
Two contour image memories 12 and 13 are provided to correspond to the contour image memories 12 and 13 in order to avoid the occurrence of a time phase shift. The A / D converter 4 and the first and second black and white image memories 5,
An image storage unit is constituted by 6 and.

The television signal producing circuit 7 is for producing the television signal by inputting the monochrome image data outputted from the second monochrome image memory 6 and converting it into an analog signal. The television monitor 8 receives the television signal from the television signal generating circuit 7 and displays it as an image, and is composed of, for example, a color CRT.

Here, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, a binarized data creation circuit 9 is provided branching to the output side of the A / D converter 4 and the binarized data creation is performed. Subsequent to the circuit 9, a binarized image memory 10, a contour detection circuit 11, and first and second contour image memories 12, 1
3 and the contour image memory 12,
A comparison coloring circuit 14 is connected to 13.

The binarized data creating circuit 9 is arranged to operate in the A /
The digital black-and-white image data output from the D converter 4 is input, and for example, a portion having low brightness and displayed in black is set to "0", and a portion having high brightness and displayed in white is set to "1". The data is binarized and binarized data is created. The binarized image memory 10 stores the binarized image data obtained by the binarized data creation circuit 9. Then, the binarized data creation circuits 9 and 2
The binarized image memory 10 and the binarized image memory 10 constitute a binarized image creation / storage means.

The contour detection circuit 11 inputs the data of the binarized image output from the binarized image memory 10 and detects the contour of the image. The contour detection circuit 11 detects, for example, "0" of the binarized image. It is composed of a digital filter such as a Laplacian filter which performs a filter process for detecting the boundary of the "1" data. The first and second contour image memories 12 and 13 separately store the data of the two contour images of different time phases obtained by the contour detection circuit 11. The contour detection circuit 11 and the first and second contour image memories 12 and 13 constitute a contour image detection storage means.

Further, the comparison coloring circuit 14 compares the two contour images of different time phases read from the first and second contour image memories 12 and 13, detects the movement amount of the contour, and detects the movement amount. For example, a red or blue color signal is given to the moving part. The image data to which the color signal is added by the comparison coloring circuit 14 is sent to the television signal creating circuit 7 under the control of the CPU 15 and is combined with the black and white tomographic image data output from the second black and white image memory 6. The amount of movement corresponding to the movement of the organ is displayed in color on the screen of the television monitor 8.

Next, the operation of detecting the amount of movement of the target organ of the subject, for example, the inner wall of the heart, and displaying it in color in the ultrasonic tomography apparatus thus constructed will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. To do. First, in FIG. 1, a normal black-and-white tomographic image is scanned and collected by the probe 1, the ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 2, and the signal processing unit 3 and converted into digital image data by the A / D converter 4. The image data sequentially written in the first and second black-and-white image memories 5 and 6 and read out from these image memories 5 and 6 are converted into a television signal by the television signal generation circuit 7 and then displayed on the television monitor 8. It is displayed as a black and white tomographic image.

In the process of displaying the tomographic image, the image data digitized by the A / D converter 4 is input to the first black and white image memory 5 and the binarized data forming circuit 9
Also enter. Then, as shown in FIG. 2A, the binarized data creation circuit 9 sets the area E ₁ displayed in black inside the heart wall 16 to a value of "0", and the area outside the area E ₁ The area E ₂ displayed in white is set to "1" and binarized. The binarized image I ₁ thus created is input and stored in the next binarized image memory 10. Next, the binarized image I ₁ read from the binarized image memory 10 is input to the contour detection circuit 11.
By the edge detection circuit 11, as shown in FIG. 2 (b), the contour of the boundary between the data "1" region E ₁ of the data "0" and the area E ₂ in the binary image I ₁ 17 To detect as. The contour image I obtained by detecting in this way
₂ is input and stored in the next first contour image memory 12. At this time, the contour image I ₂ is, for example, the contour 17
The data of the part of "1" is set to "1", and the data of the other part is set to "0". Similarly, a contour image obtained in a time phase different from that of the contour image I ₂ is stored in the second contour image memory 13.

Now, in the first contour image memory 12, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the contour image I in diastole is shown.
₃ is stored, and the second contour image memory 13 stores the contour image I _{4 of the} systole, as shown in FIG. When these two images I ₃ and I ₄ are overlapped, it becomes as shown in FIG. 3C, and the regions surrounded by the contours 17a and 17b in the respective images are the heart wall 16 in diastole and systole. Will indicate the amount of movement.

Therefore, the comparative coloring circuit 14 reads out and fetches the contour images I ₃ and I _{4 of} different time phases from the first and second contour image memories 12 and 13. Then, these contour images I ₃ and I ₄ are compared by superposing them as shown in FIG. 3C, and as shown in FIG.
A region E ₃ surrounded by the contours 17a and 17b is detected, and the region E ₃ is a moving amount of the contours 17a and 17b, and a red or blue color signal is added to the image data of the portion. Thereafter, the image data to which the color signal is added by the comparison coloring circuit 14 is sent to the television signal creating circuit 7 under the control of the CPU 15 and is combined with the black and white tomographic image data output from the second black and white image memory 6. Then, the movement amount corresponding to the movement of the organ is displayed in color on the screen of the television monitor 8. At this time, the contours 17a and 17b of FIG. 3 (d) are clear from the correspondence relationship of FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b).
Since the contour 17b of another time phase coincides with the shape of the heart wall 16 during systole, the movement amount corresponding to the actual movement of the organ is detected and displayed in color by the above operation. can do.

In the above description, the case where the heart wall is inspected as the target organ has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the case where the inner wall of the carotid artery is examined as the target organ is also the same. Can be applied.

[0022]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above,
The image data read from the image storage unit is inputted to the binarized image creating / storing unit, binarized, and the obtained binarized image is stored, and the contour image detection / storing unit stores the binarized image. The binarized image read out from the creation storage means is input to detect the contour of the image, a plurality of the obtained contour images are stored, and different colors read from the contour image detection storage means by the comparison coloring circuit. It is possible to compare a plurality of time-phase contour images, detect the movement amount of the contour, and give a color signal to the moving portion. This allows
It is possible to detect the amount of movement corresponding to the actual movement of the organ and display it in color with respect to a diagnostic site having movement such as the heart. Therefore, it is possible to display accurately as an image showing the state of movement of organs and the like, and it is possible to obtain accurate diagnostic information about the diagnostic site of the subject.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of creating a binarized image and detecting a contour image;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which a moving amount of a contour in an image is detected and color display is performed.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Probe, 2 ... Ultrasonic wave transmission / reception part, 3 ... Signal processing part, 4 ... A / D converter, 5, 6 ... Monochrome image memory,
7 ... Television signal generating circuit, 8 ... Television monitor, 9
... Binary data creation circuit, 10 ... Binary image memory,
11 ... Contour detection circuit, 12, 13 ... Contour image memory, 14 ... Comparative coloring circuit, 17, 17a, 17b
... contour, I ₁ ... 2 binary _{image, I 2, I 3, I} 4 ... outline image, the moving region of the contour between E ₃ ... different time phases.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a subject,
An ultrasonic wave transmission / reception unit that drives this probe to generate ultrasonic waves and amplifies the received reflection echo signal, and a signal that inputs the reflection echo signal from this ultrasonic wave transmission / reception unit and performs reproduction processing of a tomographic image. It has a processing section, an image storage section for storing image data by digitizing an output signal from the signal processing section, and an image display section for converting the image data from the image storage section into a video signal for display. In the ultrasonic tomography apparatus configured as described above, the image data from the image storage unit is input and binarized, and the binarized image creation and storage unit that stores the binarized image obtained, and the binarized image. A contour image detection storage means for inputting a binarized image from the creation storage means to detect the contour of the image and storing a plurality of the obtained contour images, and different read out from the contour image detection storage means. Ultrasonic tomographic apparatus characterized by comprising a plurality of contour images to compare to detect the movement amount of the outline to the moving parts and a comparison coloring circuit for imparting color signal phases.