JPH0584243A - Ultrasonic diagnostic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the ultrasonic diagnostic device which can display two dynamic images on one screen. CONSTITUTION:The ultrasonic diagnostic device is provided with a display part 6 for displaying two dynamic images corresponding to a reflected echo obtained by an ultrasonic probe 1 on the same screen, and also, provided with an A/D converter 3, a cine-memory 4 and a control part 7.

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 equipped with a display device for displaying an image corresponding to a reflection echo obtained by an ultrasonic probe.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus has an ultrasonic probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from the inside of a living body. This ultrasonic probe is composed of a plurality of transducers composed of piezoelectric elements. It is configured. At the time of diagnosis, ultrasonic waves are transmitted from the ultrasonic probe to the inside of the living body, reflected echoes from the inside of the living body are received and analyzed by the diagnostic device main body to diagnose the tissue in the living body. ing.

Further, some ultrasonic diagnostic apparatuses are equipped with a cine memory in order to freeze an image. The cine memory can store reflection echo data for a plurality of frames, and when the image is frozen at a desired timing, the images of the frames before and after that are stored. Then, in the cine reproduction mode, a desired still image stored in the cine memory is displayed on the monitor and diagnosis is performed.

[0004]

By using the cine memory, it is possible to display a still image stored in the cine memory on one monitor while displaying a moving image in real time. On the other hand, in diagnosing a heart disease using an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, not only is a frozen still image viewed, but a comparison of moving images of a normal person and an abnormal person, and a moving image of a heart with and without a load are performed. The comparison increases the rate of more reliable and early detection of heart abnormalities. Conventionally, when comparing moving images, a VTR tape on which data of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is separately recorded is used by using two TVs and a reproducing apparatus to appropriately synchronize and display images. However, in such diagnosis using two TVs, it is difficult to compare two moving images. In addition, there is a problem that it is difficult to perform an operation for synchronizing the two TVs.

Moreover, in the diagnosis using the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus,
There is a case where it is desired to enlarge and display an abnormal portion of the displayed moving image while displaying the entire moving image. However, in the conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, although the still image can be enlarged, the moving image cannot be enlarged and displayed on the screen simultaneously with the entire image. An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of displaying two moving images on one screen. Another object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of displaying two moving images at different magnifications.

[0006]

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a display device for displaying an image according to a reflection echo obtained by an ultrasonic probe. A moving image creating means and a display control means are provided. The first and second moving image creating means are arranged to make the first from the reflected echo.
And second moving image data are created respectively. The display control means is the first and second moving image creating means.
And two images based on the second moving image data are displayed on one screen of the display device.

[0007] One of the first and second image forming means of this ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus may be a cine memory for storing reflected echo data for a plurality of frames. Further, the first and second image creating means may be A / D conversion circuits for A / D converting the reflected echoes at different sampling periods.

[0008]

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, the first and second moving image creating means respectively create the first and second moving image data from the reflection echo obtained from the ultrasonic probe. 2 based on the created first and second moving image data
One image is displayed by the display control means on one screen of the display device.

Therefore, two moving images can be displayed on the display device, and for example, a moving image of a normal person and a moving image of an abnormal person can be compared on one screen. When one of the first and second moving image creating means is a cine memory, for example, moving image data of a normal person is stored in the cine memory, and the moving image data of the abnormal person and real-time moving image data are stored as 1
It can be displayed on the screen to accurately diagnose abnormal conditions.

If the first and second moving image creating means are two A / D conversion circuits each having a different sampling period, for example, moving image data of equal size is displayed at a normal sampling period, Enlarged moving image data can be displayed at a faster sampling period. Therefore, it is possible to display the same-size image and the magnified image on one screen.

[0011]

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 shows an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a plurality of probes 1 can be attached to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus via connectors (not shown). The probe 1 is composed of, for example, 64 piezoelectric elements, oscillates an ultrasonic pulse in the living body, and receives a reflection echo from the living body.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises a wave transmission processing unit 10, an echo processing unit 2, an A / D converter 3, and a cine memory unit 4.
2, a digital scan converter (hereinafter referred to as DSC) 5, a display unit 6, and a control unit 7. The wave transmission processing unit 10 includes a delay line, and delays and outputs a drive signal for driving each piezoelectric element by a predetermined amount for each transducer. The echo processing unit 2 gives a predetermined delay to each reflected echo received by the probe 1 for each piezoelectric element, performs phasing addition, and performs each reception processing such as amplification and detection of the reception signal subjected to phasing addition.

The A / D converter 3 converts the reflected echo signal received by the echo processing unit 2 into digital data at a predetermined sampling period. The cine memory unit 4 stores the reflected echo data that has been digitally converted. The capacity of the cine memory unit 4 is, for example, a capacity capable of storing the reflected echo data for 3 seconds for 128 persons. The DSC 5 writes the output of the A / D converter 3 and the output of the cine memory unit 4 in a predetermined cycle, and writes it in the NTSC.
The signal is output in synchronization with the system synchronization signal. DSC
5 is capable of processing two inputs in parallel and outputting them separately. The display unit 6 includes, for example, a CRT, and has two display memories 61 and 62 inside thereof. The display memories 61 and 62 have a capacity of one frame at maximum.

The respective units are controlled by the control unit 7. The control unit 7 is composed of a CPU, and particularly, the A / D
The sampling cycle of the converter 3, the writing / reading control of the cine memory unit 4, the data input / output timing control of the DSC 5, and the like are performed. In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus configured as described above, for example, a diagnostic image of the heart of a normal person is temporarily stored in the cine memory unit 4. Subsequently, the diagnostic image of the heart of the abnormal person is A / D converted by the A / D converter 3 and then input to the DSC 5. With this input timing,
The moving image data of the heart of a normal person in the cine memory unit 4 is read out, processed in parallel by the DSC 5, and displayed in the display memory 6 of the display unit 6.
1 and 62, respectively. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, the moving image of the normal person and the moving image of the abnormal person, which are written, are displayed on one screen of the display unit 6.

Thus, the image of the abnormal person and the image of the normal person can be compared on one screen for diagnosis, and the content of the abnormality can be surely found quickly. Second Embodiment In the first embodiment, the recorded image stored in the cine memory unit 4,
The A / D-converted real-time moving image was simultaneously displayed on the display unit 6. However, in this embodiment, two A / D converters are further provided and they are operated at different sampling periods, for example, equal magnification. The moving image and the enlarged moving image are displayed.

FIG. 3 shows an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the second embodiment. Here, the reflected echo signal received by the echo processor 2 is processed by the A / D converter 31 and the A / D converter 3.
2 and 2 are input at the same time. The sampling cycle of the A / D converter 31 is, for example, 1/3 times the sampling cycle of the A / D converter 32.
An image that is three times larger than the image of the / D converter 31 is obtained. The outputs of the A / D converters 31 and 32 are given to the cine memory unit 4 and the DSC 5.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
The D converter 31 and the A / D converter 32 can obtain two moving images with different magnifications, and the cine memory unit 4
By using, it is possible to compare a real-time moving image and a recorded image. The other configurations and operations are the same as those in the first embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted. Third Embodiment In the above two embodiments, the DSC 5 usually has conversion units of two or more series, and is configured to perform parallel processing at the same time. Therefore, the DSC 5 has a complicated structure. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, a first switching device 81 and a second switching device 82 for performing time division processing are provided before and after the DSC 5 to reduce the frame rate for simultaneous display to half of the normal rate. Realize simultaneous two-screen display by time division processing. That is, the output of the A / D converter 3 and the output of the cine memory unit 4 are given to the first switch 81. The first switch 81 is
It is provided with a switch with two inputs and one output, and two inputs are processed in a time division manner by switching the switch at a predetermined cycle. The DSC 5 synchronizes the given time-division-processed data with the NTSC television signal and outputs the second switch 82.
Give to. The second switching unit 82 has a switch with one input and two outputs, and switches in synchronization with the first switching unit 81.
The image data read from the SC5 in synchronization with the television signal is written in the display memories 61 and 62.

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the third embodiment, the first switching devices 81 and 82 are controlled by the control unit 7 as follows. For example, in the case of displaying an actual image, the first switching device 8
Both the first and second switching devices 82 are switched to the a side, and the actual image is written in the image memory 61. On the other hand, in the case of displaying a recorded image, both the first switch 81 and the second switch 82 are b.
And the recorded image recorded in the cine memory unit 4 is written in the image memory 62. In Example 3, 2
The frame rate is lower than that of the first embodiment, but the DSC
The configuration of 5 becomes simple and the price can be reduced. Fourth Embodiment A fourth embodiment is an example in which the second embodiment is time-divisionally processed. Here, as shown in FIG. 5, the first switch 81 and the second switch 81
In addition to the switch 82, a third switch 83 is provided. The third switching unit 83 is interposed between the A / D converters 31, 32, the cine memory unit 4, and the first switching unit 81. Third
The switch 83 includes a switch that selects one of the outputs of the A / D converters 31 and 32, and two switches that select one of the two outputs of the cine memory unit 4.

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the fourth embodiment having the above-mentioned configuration, the switching units 81, 82 and 83 are controlled by the control unit 7 as follows. For example, in the case of the actual-size display of the actual image, the first switching device 81, the second switching device 82, and the third switching device 83 are respectively switched to the a, a, and a1 sides, and in the case of the actual image enlarged display, , The first switching device 81, the second switching device 82, and the third switching device 83 are switched to the a, b, and b1 sides, respectively. Also, in the case of the same size display of the recorded image,
It is switched to the b, a, a2 side, and in the case of the enlarged image of the recorded image, it is switched to the b, b, b2 side, respectively.
Then, these images are written in the display memory 61 in the case of the same size image and in the display memory 62 in the case of the enlarged image, respectively.

Other configurations and operations are the same as those in the third embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted. [Other Embodiments] In the above four embodiments, two images were displayed on the display unit 6, but as shown in FIG. 6, one moving image and three enlarged moving images are displayed on the same screen. It may be configured to do so. In this case, it is necessary to provide an area for storing the enlarged image in the cine memory unit 4 and to provide four types of display memories 61, 62, 63, 64.

[0021]

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, the first
Also, since the two moving images can be created by the second moving image creating means and can be displayed on the same screen by the display control means, the two moving images can be easily compared and an accurate diagnosis can be performed. Further, by using a cine memory as one of the moving image display means, the recorded image and the real-time image can be displayed on the same screen.

Further, A / with different sampling rates
By using the D conversion circuit as the moving image forming means,
The magnified image and the same-size image can be displayed on the same screen, and a detailed image can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 1 of the second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 1 of the third embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 1 of the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3, 31, 32 A / D converter 4 Cine memory unit 5 DSC 6 Display unit 61, 62 Display memory

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising a display device for displaying an image corresponding to a reflection echo obtained by an ultrasonic probe, wherein first and second moving image data are created from the reflection echo. A first and second moving image creating means, and a display for displaying two images based on the first and second moving image data created by the first and second moving image creating means on one screen of the display device. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: a control unit. 2. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one of said first and second image creating means is a cine memory for storing a plurality of frames of reflected echo data. 3. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first and second image creating means are A / D conversion circuits for A / D converting the reflected echoes at different sampling periods.