JPH05329147A - Ultrasonic diagnostic system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform simply various treatments to informations on a living body recorded in an external recording apparatus. CONSTITUTION:In this ultrasonic diagnostic system, data stored in a buffer memory 21 storing sound line data, an image memory 22 and a video memory 23 are selectively recorded in a hard disc apparatus 9 and are read out therefrom.

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 a living body obtained by emitting an ultrasonic beam into a living body and processing sound ray data obtained from a reflection echo signal from the living body. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of recording information in an external recording device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus used in the medical field, for example, the tomographic data of the heart is displayed on a monitor in real time as biological information, and the blood flow velocity at a specific site is measured by the pulse Doppler method, and this distribution Is displayed on the monitor as biometric information as described above.

Recently, a two-dimensional blood flow tomographic method has been adopted in order to grasp the blood flow velocity two-dimensionally. This is to synthesize blood flow velocity data with tomographic data and express the blood flow velocity in two dimensions and in real time.
That is, the tomographic information and the blood flow information are digitized and combined, converted into R, G, and B television signals, and the average velocity profile of the detected blood flow is color-coded on a normal tomographic image. It is supposed to be displayed.

This type of ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a transmission / reception circuit for transmitting / receiving ultrasonic pulses, a Doppler signal processing unit for obtaining Doppler data, and a tomographic signal processing unit for obtaining tomographic data. A display monitor for synthesizing them to create display image data and a display monitor are provided. In the display control unit, a buffer memory for storing one or a plurality of obtained sound ray data such as Doppler data or tomographic data, and various images such as interpolation of the sound ray data stored in the buffer memory. An image memory for processing and synthesizing one frame of biometric information, and a video memory for storing image data in which the biometric information stored in the image memory and various character information are added are stored in the form of a video signal. I have it.

When the sound ray data is stored in the image memory, various processes are performed according to the mode. For example, in the BM mode, the B mode image and the M mode image are stored in the image memory so as to be arranged on the left and right of the screen. Further, in the color Doppler mode, the blood flow information is combined so as to be displayed two-dimensionally on the B mode. Further, in the color Doppler mode, selection of the color information (flow velocity, power, dispersion) to be displayed, composition of the selected color information and a monochrome tomographic image, and the like are also performed. Further, image enlargement processing of the points to be noticed is also performed.

On the other hand, there has been proposed a conventional device capable of recording the combined image data stored in the image memory in an external recording device such as a video tape recorder (VTR) or a hard disk device. Also, VT
An apparatus has also been proposed in which a video signal recorded in R is taken into a video memory and displayed.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the above conventional configuration,
The information selected according to the mode is combined and stored as biometric information in the image memory or video memory, and the stored biometric information is recorded in the external recording device. Various processes cannot be performed.

For example, in the color Doppler mode,
Once the biometric information obtained by combining two color information of the flow velocity and the dispersion with the tomographic data is recorded in the hard disk device, power is added to the recorded biometric information,
No other processing can be done. Further, image processing cannot be performed on individual data (for example, tomographic data, blood flow data, etc.) of biometric information recorded in the hard disk device.

Further, when recording a video signal in a VTR, it is necessary to convert a signal that has been converted from analog data to digital data again into analog data, which causes a problem that image quality deteriorates. An object of the present invention is to be able to perform various kinds of processing on biometric information recorded in an external recording device.

[0010]

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention is capable of recording biometric information obtained by processing sound ray data obtained from a reflection echo signal from a living body in an external recording device. It is a device. This device comprises a plurality of digital memories, an output selecting means, an input selecting means, and a plurality of selecting means. The plurality of digital memories include a buffer memory for storing unprocessed sound ray data obtained from the reflected echo signal. The output selection means selects the digital data stored in one of the plurality of digital memories and outputs it to the external recording device. The input selection means inputs the digital data recorded in the external recording device and outputs the digital data to one of a plurality of digital memories. The plurality of selecting means are provided corresponding to each digital memory, and select either one of the digital data obtained from the reflected echo signal and the digital data obtained from the external recording device via the input selecting means. It is a thing.

[0011]

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, when a reflected echo signal is obtained from the inside of a living body, digital data including sound ray data is obtained from the reflected echo signal. The obtained sound ray data is stored in the buffer memory, and the other digital data is stored in the other digital memory. The digital data stored in the plurality of digital memories is selected by the output selecting means and recorded in the external recording device. The digital data recorded in the external recording device is input by the input selection means and output to one of the plurality of digital memories. The digital data obtained from the reflected echo signal and the digital data obtained from the external recording device via the input selection means are selected by the selection means.

In this case, since the digital data including the sound ray data before processing obtained in real time can be temporarily stored in the digital memory and then recorded in the external recording device, the processing can be performed in real time. The digital data recorded in the external recording device can be read again and various processes can be repeated. Further, even if a plurality of digital memories such as a buffer memory, an image memory, a video memory are provided, these data can be recorded in the external recording device. Further, the digital data recorded in the external recording device is output to the digital memory via the input selection means. Therefore, it becomes possible to output the digital data recorded in the external recording device to any one of the digital memories and perform various processes.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is composed of an apparatus main body 1 and a probe 2 connected to the apparatus main body 1. The probe 2 is composed of a plurality of minute oscillators. The device body 1 includes a wave transmitting / receiving circuit 3. The transmission / reception circuit 3 is controlled by the device control unit 4, and includes a high frequency pulse oscillator for transmitting an ultrasonic beam, a delay circuit for performing electronic scanning, a delay amount control circuit, and the like. And a wave receiving unit that amplifies the received signal.

A Doppler signal processing unit 5 and a tomographic signal processing unit 6 are connected to the transmission / reception circuit 3. The Doppler signal processing unit 5 includes a 90 ° phase shifter, a mixer, an A / D conversion circuit, a blood flow rate calculation circuit, and the like. The blood flow velocity calculation circuit is for performing processing such as MTI filter processing and fast Fourier transform calculation to obtain the average flow velocity, power and dispersion of blood flow. The tomographic signal processing unit 6 includes a logarithmic amplification circuit, a detection circuit, a low-pass filter, an A / D conversion circuit, and the like. A display control unit 7 is connected to the Doppler signal processing unit 5 and the tomographic signal processing unit 6. The display control unit 7 is a digital scan converter (DSC).
, And is composed of various digital memories (details will be described later). A monitor 8 is connected to the display control unit 7. Further, the display controller 7 includes a hard disk device (HD
D) 9 is also connectable.

On the other hand, each of these units is controlled by the device control unit 4. A key input unit 10 such as a keyboard is connected to the device control unit 4. Display control unit 7
As shown in FIG. 2, includes a buffer memory 21, an image memory 22, and a video memory 23. The buffer memory 21 temporarily stores one or a plurality of sound ray data such as Doppler data and tomographic data sampled along the ultrasonic beam. The first selector 24 is connected to the input side of the buffer memory 21. The first selector 24 includes the Doppler signal processing unit 5 or the tomographic signal processing unit 6.
One of the sound ray data obtained in step 1 and the sound ray data recorded in the HDD 9 is selected and output to the buffer memory 21. The second selector 25 is connected to the output side of the buffer memory 21. Second selector 25
Is sound ray data and H stored in the buffer memory 21.
One of the sound ray data recorded in the DD 9 is selected and output.

An image memory writing circuit 26 is connected to the output side of the second selector 25. The image memory writing circuit 26 controls the writing timing of data to be written in the image memory 22 and performs various kinds of image processing. Here, for example, in the case of a B-mode image obtained by sector scanning, the coordinate positions of the sample points along the ultrasonic beam and the sample points of the image memory do not generally match, so the coordinate conversion is performed by interpolation calculation or the like. It also performs image enlargement processing, partial enlargement processing, rotation / movement processing, and the like. In the color Doppler mode, the tomographic data and the color image data are superposed. The color image to be displayed is further selected (flow velocity, power, dispersion). In the BM mode, the image writing processing is performed so that the writing positions of different images are changed and a plurality of images are displayed side by side.

The image memory writing circuit 26 is controlled by the device control section 4, and controls the reading of the buffer memory 21 and the writing control of the image memory 22. An image memory reading circuit 27 is connected to the image memory 22. The image memory reading circuit 27 is controlled by the device controller 4 and
2 to control the reading. Image memory reading circuit 27
An output selector 30 and a video signal generation circuit 28 are connected to the. The video signal generation circuit 28 outputs synchronization information to the image memory read circuit 27 and the character graphic generation circuit 35 (described later), receives image data from the image memory read circuit 27 in synchronization with the video signal, and receives the received image data. Is converted into a video signal and output. The video signal generating circuit 28 includes an adding circuit 3
2 is connected. The addition circuit 32 is connected to a character graphic generation circuit 35 provided to superimpose a character or graphic image on the image. In the adder circuit 32, the characters and graphics generated by the character graphic generation circuit 35 are superimposed on the video signal obtained by the video signal generation circuit 28. The output of the adder circuit 32 is connected to the third selector 33 and the fourth selector 34.

The third selector 33 outputs the video signal V _IN input from the outside, the image data of the video signal recorded in the hard disk device 9 input to the input selector 29 via the interface circuit 31 and the adder 32. The selected video signal is one of the selected video signals. The video signal selected by the third selector 33 is given to the video memory 23. The fourth selector 34 includes the video signal output from the adder circuit 32 and the video memory 2
One of the video signals output from the 3 is selected. The selected video signal V _OUT is displayed on the monitor 8
Is output to. The output of the video memory 23 is also given to the output selector 30.

The output selector 30 includes a buffer memory 21.
Of the sound ray data stored in the image memory 22, the image data stored in the image memory 22 and the video signal stored in the video memory 23, and the interface circuit 31
Output to. In addition, the input selector 29 receives the digital data supplied from the interface circuit 31 as the first data.
Selector 24, second selector 25 or third selector 33
Output alternatively. The interface circuit 31 is for exchanging data with the hard disk device 9.

Next, the operation will be described. Key input part 1
When the operator determines the mode by using 0, the device control unit 4
Then, the mode is determined and a control signal according to the mode is output to each unit. For example, a case will be described in which the sound ray data stored in the buffer memory 21 is recorded in the hard disk device 9 and the display content of color information (flow velocity, power, dispersion) is changed in the color Doppler mode.

In this case, first, the output selector 30 is
The output of the buffer memory 21 is controlled to be selected.
Further, the second selector 25 is controlled so as to select the buffer memory 21. Then, the image memory writing circuit 2
In 6, the flow velocity is selected as the color information. Then, the flow velocity image is stored together with the B-mode image in the image memory 22. The stored composite image is read by the image memory reading circuit 27 in synchronization with the video signal. The read image data is supplied to the video signal generation circuit 2
8 is converted into a video signal and output to the monitor 8 via the fourth selector 34. At this time, the characters and graphics generated by the character graphic generation circuit 35 are
It is added in the adder circuit 32. Also, the buffer memory 2
The output of No. 1 is output to and recorded in the hard disk device 9 via the output selector 30 and the interface circuit 31.

Next, let us consider redisplaying the image recorded in the hard disk device 9 in the power mode. Here, the first selector 24 is replaced by the input selector 29.
Control to select the output of. Further, the input selector 29 is controlled so that its output is output to the first selector 24. In this state, sound ray data is given from the hard disk device 9 to the first selector 24 via the interface circuit 31 and the input selector 29. The sound ray data is further stored in the buffer memory 21.
The output of the buffer memory 21 is transferred to the image memory writing circuit 26 via the second selector 25. here,
The desired image processing is performed, and the power data is stored in the image memory 22 together with the tomographic data. Image memory 22
The image data written in is output to the monitor 8 via the fourth selector 34 in the same manner as described above.

Subsequently, when displaying the dispersed color information, the sound ray data is read again from the hard disk device 9, and the interface circuit 31 and the input selector 2 are read.
9, the sound ray data is transferred to the buffer 2 via the first selector 24.
It is stored in 1. Then, the sound ray data is transferred to the image memory writing circuit 26 via the second selector 25, and image processing for obtaining the dispersion is performed. The obtained image data for one screen is stored in the image memory 22. After that, it is the same as the above, and the monitor 8 is operated via the fourth selector 34.
A composite image is output to.

Next, the freeze image of the B mode image stored in the image memory 22 is recorded in the hard disk device 9,
A case will be described below in which this is read out and the region of interest is magnified at various magnification rates for diagnosis. In this case, the output selector 30 is controlled to select the output of the image memory reading circuit 27, and the input selector 29 is controlled to output the output to the second selector 25. As a result, the image data for one screen stored in the image memory 22 is recorded in the hard disk device 9 for each screen. Further, the recorded image data of one screen can be written in the image memory 22 again via the input selector 29 and the second selector 25. At this time, the image memory writing circuit 26 performs various image processing such as image enlargement. As a result, it is possible to obtain an image that has undergone various image processes from one image.

Furthermore, when the image of the video signal recorded in the video memory 23 is recorded in the hard disk device 9 in the state of a digital signal, the third selector 33 is used.
The output of the adder circuit 32 is controlled to be selected, and the output selector 30 is controlled to select the output of the video memory 23. As a result, the image data of the obtained video signal is temporarily stored in the video memory 34 via the third selector 33. Further, it is recorded in the hard disk device 9 via the output selector 30 and the interface circuit 31. As a result, a desired image can be read out from the obtained plurality of images, and a comment or the like can be added to the image to record it as a photograph. Also, for the obtained image,
Various measurement processes can also be performed.

The image of the video signal recorded in the hard disk device 9 is transferred to the video memory 34 via the interface circuit 31, the input selector 29 and the third selector 33.
It can also be recorded in. Furthermore, in the third selector 33, the video input signal V _IN from the outside is transferred to the video memory 34.
It can also be stored in. In this case, the fourth selector 34 is switched to the side that selects the output of the video memory 23.

Here, by recording the data stored in the buffer memory 21 in an external recording device such as the hard disk device 9, it is not necessary to perform ultrasonic scanning each time when performing plural types of image processing. That is, once the sound ray data, the image data, the digital data such as the video signal is stored in the hard disk device 9, the image processing can be performed only by reading the digital data from the hard disk device 9. For example, when enlarging / reducing a frozen image or displaying a plurality of images side by side, the image data stored in the image memory 22 is temporarily stored in the hard disk device 9, read out, and image processed again. You can do it.

Further, the image data in the form of the video signal recorded in the video memory 34 can be recorded in the hard disk device 9 in a digital state, and the image quality deterioration of the video signal can be prevented. [Other Embodiments] (a) In the above embodiments, the buffer memory 21, the image memory 22 and the video memory 23 are illustrated as digital memories, but other digital memories such as a cine memory for recording a freeze image are used. Digital memory can also be used. When the contents of the cine memory are recorded in the external recording device (hard disk device), they can be continuously reproduced. (B) In the above embodiment, the hard disk device 9 was used as the external recording device, but as the external recording device, DA
A T, IC card, semiconductor disk, magneto-optical disk, flexible disk or the like may be used. (C) In the above embodiment, the image memory writing circuit 26 is provided with an arithmetic function such as various image processing in real time, but the interface circuit 31 may be further provided with an arithmetic function. In this case, the hard disk device 9
The sound ray data read from the image memory 9 can be subjected to arithmetic processing different from that of the image memory writing circuit 26 or complicated arithmetic processing that cannot be processed in real time, and can be written into the image memory 9. For example, display at an enlargement ratio different from that of the image memory writing circuit 26 and interpolation processing of a complicated algorithm can be performed.

As a result, similar arithmetic processing can be performed between the image memory 22 data read from the hard disk device 9 and the video memory 23, and between the sound ray data read from the hard disk device 9 and the video memory 23. become.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, the digital data stored in the plurality of digital memories including the buffer memory for storing the sound ray data before processing can be recorded in the external recording device through the output selecting means. Since the recorded digital data can be written in the digital memory via the input selecting means and the selecting means, various processing can be performed on the digital data recorded in the external recording device. In addition, it is possible to suppress deterioration of the image quality of the video signal.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block circuit diagram of the display control unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 probe 4 device control unit 7 display control unit 8 monitor 9 hard disk device 21 buffer memory 22 image memory 23 video memory 24 first selector 25 second selector 29 input selector 30 output selector 31 interface circuit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of recording biometric information obtained by processing sound ray data obtained from a reflection echo signal from the inside of a living body in an external recording device, obtained from the reflection echo signal. A plurality of digital memories including a buffer memory for storing the sound ray data before processing, and an output for selecting the digital data stored in one of the plurality of digital memories and outputting the selected digital data to the external recording device Selecting means, input selecting means for inputting the digital data recorded in the external recording device and outputting the digital data to one of the plurality of digital memories; The digital data obtained from the echo signal and the digital data obtained from the external recording device through the input selection means are included. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: a plurality of selecting means for selecting one of the shifts.