JPH05344975A - Ultrasonic wave diagnosing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an ultrasonic wave diagnosing system which can collect three-dimensional data at a high speed in the system constitution for mechanically moving an array probe. CONSTITUTION:This ultrasonic wave diagnosing system is equipped with a transmission/receiver 2 which transmits the relatively spread transmission beam from an array probe 1 and receives a plurality of reception beams at the same time through the array probe 1, means (combination of a reversible swing motor 3 and a probe shift controller 4) for mechanically moving the array probe 1 in the slice direction, and a scan controller 5 for allowing the array probe 1 to carry out the second direction scan through the control for synchronously operating the transmission/receiving device 2 and the probe shift controller 4. Further, a means (phase arrangement addition calculation circuits 61-6n) for collecting three-dimensional data by the repetition of taking in a plurality of simultaneous received echo signals in parallel supplied from the transmission/ receiver 2 under the control by the scan controller 5 is provided.

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 capable of collecting three-dimensional data and performing stereoscopic display.
In particular, it relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus configured to mechanically move an array probe to collect three-dimensional data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of this type, as a method of mechanically moving an array probe, for example, JP-A-55-116342, JP-A-56-75146, and JP-A-61-161. There are some proposals as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 154653, etc., but these methods have the following points in common.

A. The array probe performs the same scan as when collecting normal tomographic image data.

B. The array probe mechanically moves or rotates the imaging section.

C. The movement of the mechanical array probe is sufficiently slow compared to the scanning by electronic scanning of the array probe.

Also, conventionally, there has been proposed a method of electronically scanning an array probe to collect tomographic image data in a short time. This is to output a comparatively spread transmission beam and to collect data for several reception beams at the same time by a reception phasing addition circuit having several series.

Furthermore, a method for collecting three-dimensional data by using an array probe having a two-dimensional division structure in which a plurality of vibrating elements are arranged in a plurality of rows (two-dimensional array probe) has already been proposed. .. This is to perform the same degree of division in both orthogonal directions and to collect three-dimensional data by electronic scanning in both directions.

[0008]

However, in the prior art, each of the method of mechanically moving the array probe, the simultaneous reception and the two-dimensional array probe has the following problems.

A. How to move the array probe mechanically Data acquisition time is slow. For example, when 120 rasters are output in the direction in which the vibrating elements are arranged in rows (array direction), it takes about 1/30 seconds to collect one cross section. Therefore, it takes about 4 seconds to obtain 120 tomographic images by moving the array probe in the direction (slice direction) orthogonal to the array direction. This is too time-consuming to capture an image of a moving object such as the heart or blood flow.

B. Simultaneous reception If a wide range of data is to be acquired at the same time in order to collect data at a higher speed, it becomes difficult to equalize the transmission sound pressures in the central part and the peripheral part, and s / n deteriorates.

C. Two-dimensional array Manufacturing is very difficult. For example, considering that the array probe scans in both directions of the array and slice, it is necessary to divide into 50 in both directions. In this case, the number of elements becomes 2500, which makes it very difficult to draw out wiring. However, as will be described later, if the scan in the slice direction is mechanically performed and the operation by the array probe in the slice direction is limited to only the minute angle deflection and the focus, the number of divisions in the slice direction may be several divisions. Difficulty is extremely reduced and becomes feasible.

The present invention has been made by paying attention to the above-mentioned circumstances, and an object thereof is an ultrasonic diagnosis capable of collecting three-dimensional data at high speed in a system configuration in which an array probe is mechanically moved. To provide a device.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a transmitting / receiving means for emitting a relatively spread transmission beam from an array probe and simultaneously receiving a plurality of reception beams via the array probe. , The array probe is mechanically moved in a direction orthogonal to the array direction of the vibrating elements, and the transmitting / receiving means and the probe driving means are controlled to operate in synchronization with each other to perform a secondary scanning by the array probe. And a three-dimensional data collecting means for collecting three-dimensional data by repeatedly capturing a plurality of simultaneously received echo signals from the transmitting and receiving means in parallel under the control of the scanning control means. It is characterized by doing.

[0014]

With the configuration of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention,
Under the control of the scanning control means, the probe driving means mechanically moves the array probe in a direction orthogonal to the array direction to scan the secondary direction to obtain a plurality of simultaneously received echo signals obtained by the transmitting / receiving means in the three-dimensional data collecting means. It is possible to collect three-dimensional data by repeating the acquisition in parallel. Therefore, high-speed three-dimensional data acquisition, which is impossible only by the conventional method of mechanically moving the array probe, simultaneous reception, and the two-dimensional array probe method, becomes possible.

[0015]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the functional arrangement of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the first embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the first embodiment, an array probe 1 having a one-dimensionally divided structure in which a plurality of vibrating elements are arranged in a single row, and a relatively spread transmission beam is emitted from the array probe 1. , A combination of a transceiver 2 for simultaneously receiving a plurality of reception beams via the array probe 1, a reversible swing motor 3 for mechanically moving the array probe 1 in a direction orthogonal to the array direction, and a probe movement controller 4. And a scanning controller 5 for controlling the transceiver 2 and the probe movement controller 4 to operate in synchronization with each other to perform secondary scanning by the array probe 1, and from the transceiver under the control of the scanning controller 5. and phasing and adding circuit 6 ₁ to 6 _n which gave plurality of systems multiple simultaneous received echo signals to allow the collection of three-dimensional data with repeated capturing in parallel, a display processing circuit 7, a monitor It is equipped with a door.

In the configuration including these units, the array probe 1 performs electronic fan-shaped scanning for parallel reception of a plurality of reception beams in parallel with the transmission beam in the array direction, while the array probe 1 has a reversible oscillation. By driving the motor 3 to perform mechanical fan scanning in the slice direction, secondary scanning is performed. This secondary scanning is performed by the scanning control unit 5
Under the control of, the two-dimensional data (three-dimensional data) for a plurality of sheets is repeatedly acquired by parallelly fetching a plurality of simultaneously-received echo signals obtained by the transmitter / receiver 2 into the phasing addition circuits 6 _{1 to} 6 _n. collect. When the plurality of pieces of two-dimensional image data thus collected are added to the display processing unit 7 in the next stage, the display processing circuit 7
At 3, the three-dimensional image is created and the three-dimensional image is displayed on the monitor 8.

Since the three-dimensional data is collected by the parallel simultaneous reception as described above, the high-speed three-dimensional data collection can be performed, which is impossible only by each conventional method.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the functional arrangement of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the second embodiment basically operates in the same manner as the first embodiment, but an array having a two-dimensional division structure in which a plurality of vibrating elements are arranged in a plurality of rows. Since the probe 11 is used, the transmission and reception beams are spread in the slice direction as well, and the number of simultaneous receptions is increased accordingly. In the secondary direction scanning by the array probe 11, the scanning controller 15 causes the transceiver 12 and the probe movement controller 14 to operate in synchronization with each other, and the electronic fan-shaped scanning in the array direction and the reversible swing motor 13 are performed. It is performed by mechanical fan-shaped scanning in the slice direction by driving. The phasing addition circuit 16 is for collecting two-dimensional image data, and the display processing circuit 17 displays a two-dimensional image on the monitor 18 according to the two-dimensional image data collected by the phasing addition circuit 16. Become. Further, in the first embodiment described above, the phasing addition circuit is provided in parallel so that simultaneous reception can be performed. However, in the present embodiment, the number of simultaneous receptions is very large. Instead of once, the array probe 1 is once stored in the waveform memory 19.
By recording the received waveform of each vibrating element 1 and performing aperture synthesis processing in the aperture synthesis processing circuit 20 later, data of a plurality of two-dimensional data subjected to phasing addition is obtained. The plurality of two-dimensional data is once written into the image data memory 21, read out, and added to the three-dimensional graphic operation circuit 22 to obtain three-dimensional image data. Based on the three-dimensional image data, the display processing circuit 17 causes the monitor 18 to display the three-dimensional image data. A three-dimensional image is displayed on the screen.

As described above, in the second embodiment, since the transmission beams spread in both the array and slice directions are used,
It is relatively easy to form a transmission beam having a uniform sound pressure, which makes it possible to obtain a reception echo with a good S / N. Therefore, according to the second embodiment, it is possible to collect data at a higher speed than in the first embodiment.

However, since mechanical scanning is performed in the slice direction even while electronically scanning in the array direction, as the angle of the normal line of the array probe 11 changes, each transmission beam The center position of is shifted as shown by the solid line in FIG. In this case, the position is shifted from the center of the predetermined transmission beam positions B _{1 to} B _n surrounded by the dotted line, and the three-dimensional image is distorted. In particular, when data is collected at high speed as in this embodiment, the mechanical movement of the probe array 11 is also carried out at high speed, so distortion cannot be ignored. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the probe movement controller 14 controls the reversible vibration motor 13 to correct the array probe 11 in the slice direction by taking advantage of the characteristics of the two-dimensional array. It is performed by reversible drive adjustment. By performing this correction, it is possible to secure the predetermined transmission beam positions B _{1 to} B _n surrounded by the dotted line in FIG. 5 and having no deviation. Further, in FIG. 5, small circles shown in the transmission beams B _{1 to} B _n represent reception beams. However, if the center of the array probe 11 is fixed by mechanical movement as shown in FIG. 6A, it can be completely corrected, but as shown in FIG. 6B, the center of the array probe 11 is also corrected. It is desirable to keep in mind that the correction becomes incomplete when moving, and a positional error remains depending on whether the depth of the sound field is a short distance or a long distance.

By performing the minute angle deflection in this way, as shown in FIG. 7, the relationship between the mechanical movement of the array probe 11 at the time of blood flow measurement and the position of the transmission beam after the minute angle deflection (the position surrounded by the dotted line). Should be obtained. That is,
During blood flow measurement, transmission is performed several times in the same array direction, but since the array probe 11 is moving in the slice direction due to mechanical movement during that time as well, it is good to correct by including that amount as well. .. Since such a correction can be performed only by deflecting a small angle, it can be performed even if the number of divisions of the vibration element group is small.

Further, since the array probe 11 is a two-dimensional array and is also divided in the slice direction, it is possible to dynamically change the aperture and reception focus in the slice direction at each depth. In this embodiment, the dynamic change operation is performed in the aperture synthesis processing in the aperture synthesis processing circuit 20. Actually, an ultrasonic examination is performed while viewing a normal real-time tomographic image, and if necessary, the operator instructs the apparatus of this embodiment to collect three-dimensional data by means of a switch or the like. The three-dimensional data is stored in the waveform memory 19 by the above operation. afterwards,
An image is calculated by the aperture synthesis processing in the aperture synthesis processing circuit 20, and the image corresponding to the instruction of the operator is displayed on the monitor 18.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the aperture synthesis processing is performed only in the second embodiment, but the addition of the aperture synthesis processing function to the system configuration of the first embodiment does not depart from the present invention. Of course, of course. Also,
It is also within the scope of the present invention to have a plurality of phasing addition circuits in parallel in the system configuration of the second embodiment. Further, both the electronic scanning by the array probe and the mechanical scanning performed by the array probe are fan-shaped scanning in each of the above-described embodiments, but actually have different shapes within a range that does not change the gist of the present invention. It can also be applied to scanning.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, since three-dimensional data is collected by moving the array probe in the slice direction while simultaneously receiving in parallel via the array probe, three-dimensional data can be collected at high speed. You can do it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of a first embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the concept of secondary direction scanning in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the concept of secondary direction scanning in the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a concept of correcting a tomographic plane by minute angle deflection in the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram used for explaining conditions under which a tomographic plane can be effectively corrected by minute angle deflection in the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a preferred example of the mechanical movement of the array probe and the position of the transmission beam when performing blood flow measurement according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,11 array probe 2,12 transceiver 3,13 reversible swing motor 4, 14 probe movement controller 5,15 scan controller 6 ₁ ~6 _n, 16 phasing addition circuit 7, 17 display processing circuit 8, 18 Monitor 19 Waveform memory 20 Aperture synthesis processing circuit 21 Image data memory 22 Three-dimensional graphic operation circuit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Takanobu Uchibori 1385-1 Shimoishigami, Otawara, Tochigi Prefecture Toshiba Medical Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Satoshi Tezuka 1385-1, Shimoishigami, Otawara, Tochigi Prefecture Stock Association Inside Toshiba Nasu factory

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A transmission / reception means for emitting a relatively wide transmission beam from an array probe and simultaneously receiving a plurality of reception beams via the array probe; and a machine for moving the array probe in a direction orthogonal to the array direction of the vibration elements. A probe driving unit that is moved dynamically, a scanning control unit that controls the transmitting and receiving unit and the probe driving unit to operate synchronously, and causes the array probe to perform secondary direction scanning, and under the control of the scanning control unit. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising: a three-dimensional data collecting unit that repeatedly collects a plurality of simultaneously received echo signals from the transmitting and receiving unit in parallel to collect three-dimensional data. 2. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an array probe having a two-dimensionally divided structure in which a plurality of vibrating elements are arranged in a plurality of rows is used as the array probe. 3. A relatively thick transmission beam is emitted in both the array direction of the vibrating elements and the direction orthogonal thereto, and two directions are simultaneously provided by a reception beam group having directivity in each direction within a cone or a polygonal cone formed by the transmission beam. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the received echoes from the above are detected. 4. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the transmitting / receiving means performs a receiving operation while changing an opening width and a focus in a direction orthogonal to an array direction of the vibration elements in the array probe having the two-dimensionally divided structure. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus characterized by: 5. The non-uniformity of the interval between the tomographic images caused by the mechanical movement is corrected by deflecting the microscopic angle in accordance with the mechanical movement in the direction orthogonal to the array direction of the vibrating elements. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2. 6. An error caused by a mechanical movement at the time of collecting blood flow information is reduced by deflecting a minute angle in accordance with a mechanical movement in a direction orthogonal to the array direction of the vibrating elements. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2. 7. A phasing addition circuit for displaying a real-time tomographic image, a waveform memory and a processing circuit for performing aperture synthesis processing in a system for mechanically moving an array probe to collect three-dimensional data of a subject. In addition, the phasing addition circuit is operated during normal real-time tomographic image display, and the waveform memory and the processing circuit are operated when an instruction to collect three-dimensional data is received. And ultrasonic diagnostic equipment.