JPH0641539Y2 - Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and more particularly to improvement of image processing thereof.

(B) Conventional technology and its problems Conventionally, in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus equipped with a digital scan converter (DSC), image data is written in the image memory (digital memory) of the digital scan converter and the image data is read at the TV scanning speed. The image is displayed on the TV monitor at 30 frames per second on the TV monitor. In such an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, in order to remove the noise component and improve the image quality, as shown in FIG. 3, the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line a one frame before and the same as this time are used. The data is averaged with the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line a, and the averaged data is written as the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line a in the corresponding address of the image memory of the digital scan converter. Then, the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning lines b, c, d, e ... One frame before and the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning lines b, c, d, e ... Sequential writing to the image memory. That is, image data corresponding to ultrasonic scanning lines of different time phases for 1/30 second (one frame) and image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line of this time are averaged and written in the image memory of the digital scan converter. Is.

As described above, in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the conventional example, the time interval for writing the image data in the image memory is longer than 1/30 second in order to average the image data of the previous frame, and therefore,
For example, when observing a fast-moving subject such as a heart valve, the difference between the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line one frame before and the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line this time is calculated. Will become large and the image will be blurred. Therefore, when observing a fast-moving subject,
There is a drawback that the image processing for removing the noise component as described above cannot be applied.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points, and it is possible to display a clear image free from noise components even in a fast-moving subject without blurring the image. It is an object to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

(C) Means for Solving the Problems In the present invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the transducer is excited and driven, and a transmitting / receiving circuit for receiving an output signal from the transducer, and the transmitting / receiving circuit. In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including a digital scan converter for writing and reading image data based on an output signal from the digital scan converter, an image data corresponding to one ultrasonic scan line and At least two first and second line buffer memories each storing an output of the averaging circuit, and image data based on an output signal from the transmitting / receiving circuit,
A switching circuit for alternately switching to and outputting to the first and second line buffer memories for each line of the ultrasonic scanning line; image data read from one line buffer memory of the both line buffer memories; An averaging circuit for averaging the image data read from the line buffer memory is provided, and the image data averaged from the averaging circuit is given to the digital scan converter and the first through the control circuit. The second line buffer memory is characterized by being alternately provided.

(D) Operation Therefore, according to the above configuration, the image data corresponding to each adjacent ultrasonic scanning line is averaged, and the averaged image data is sequentially written in the image memory of the digital scan converter. It is possible to improve the image quality by removing the image, and it is possible to obtain a clear image even in the case of an object such as an organ that moves quickly.

Moreover, since the image data is averaged by averaging the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line and the image data obtained by averaging the data before the ultrasonic scanning line, cumulative averaging is performed. This means that the noise component will be removed more than in the case of simply averaging.

(E) Embodiment Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.
In the figure, 1 is the whole ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, 2 is a transducer for transmitting ultrasonic waves to a subject and receiving the reflected waves, 3 is a drive pulse for exciting the transducer 2, and 3 is a transducer. This is a wave transmission / reception circuit that amplifies and detects the echo signal from 2. This transmission / reception circuit 3 includes a preamplifier 4 for amplifying an echo signal, a logarithmic compression circuit 5 for logarithmically compressing the output of the preamplifier 4, a detection circuit 6, and a filter 7 for waveform shaping the output of the detection circuit 6.
It consists of and.

Reference numeral 8 is an A / D converter that converts the data from the wave transmitting / receiving circuit 3 into a digital signal and outputs it as image data. 9
Is a digital scan converter that writes and reads image data based on the output signal from the transmission / reception circuit 3, and 10 is a D / that converts the image data read at a TV scan speed from the digital scan converter 9 into an analog signal.
An A converter, 11 is a TV monitor that displays an image based on the image data from the D / A converter 10.

The feature of this embodiment is that at least two first and second line buffer memories 12a and 12b for storing image data corresponding to one line of the ultrasonic scanning line are provided in front of the input side of the digital scan converter 9. A switching circuit 13 for switching the connection between the / D converter 8 and the first and second line buffer memories 12a and 12b to alternately output the image data to the first and second line buffer memories 12a and 12b, and these lines. Buffer memory 12a,
Image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line read from one of the line buffer memories 12a (12b) of 12b and data before the ultrasonic scanning line read from the other line buffer memory 12b (12a) are averaged. An averaging circuit 14 for averaging the image data thus obtained and a control circuit (CPU) 15 for controlling them are provided.

In this embodiment, the control circuit (CPU) 15 includes an averaging circuit 14
Each time it is averaged by, the averaged image data is
The first and second line buffer memories 12a and 12b are alternately written, so that the averaging circuit 14 performs cumulative averaging as described later.

That is, in this embodiment, the image memory of the digital scan converter 9 includes the line buffer memory 12 on one side.
The image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line read from a (12b) and the image data obtained by averaging the data before the ultrasonic scanning line read from the other line buffer memory 12b (12a) are averaged. The image data averaged at 14 and the cumulatively averaged image data are sequentially written to the corresponding addresses. Next, the operation of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 1 having the above configuration will be described.

First, the transducer 2 transmits an ultrasonic wave to the subject, receives the reflected wave, and outputs a corresponding echo signal to the transmitting / receiving circuit 3. The transmitting / receiving circuit 3 amplifies and detects this echo signal, further digitizes it by the A / D converter 8, and then outputs it to the switching circuit 13 as image data.

The switching circuit 13 receives the control signal from the control circuit 15 every time image data for one ultrasonic scanning line is input.
The connection between the first and second line buffer memories 12a and 12b is alternately switched. Therefore, each line buffer memory 12a, 12b
Will alternately and sequentially store image data corresponding to adjacent ultrasonic scanning lines.

Furthermore, in the first and second line buffer memories 12a and 12b,
The image data averaged by the averaging circuit 14 is alternately written via the control circuit (CPU) 15 as described above. That is, the image data from the switching circuit 13 is written in one of the line buffer memories 12a (12b), and the image data averaged by the averaging circuit 14 is changed to the control circuit (CP
U) through 15 other line buffer memory 12b (12a)
To the averaging circuit 14
The cumulative average is set in.

In the averaging circuit 14, the first and second line buffer memories 12a,
The image data for each one line of 12b is averaged and given to the digital scan converter 9, and this averaged image data is passed through the control circuit (CPU) 15 to
It is written in either one of the second line buffer memories 12a and 12b.

That is, in the averaging circuit 14, as shown in FIG. 2, the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line a read from one of the line buffer memories 12a and 12b (a line buffer memory 12a (12b)), The image data corresponding to the next ultrasonic scanning line b adjacent to the ultrasonic scanning line a read from the other line buffer memory 12b (12a) is averaged and output. The averaged image data is written in the image memory of the digital scan converter 9 at a corresponding address as image data corresponding to the adjacent ultrasonic scanning line b.

Furthermore, this averaged image data is used in the control circuit (CP
U) through 15 other line buffer memory 12b (12a)
Written. At this time, one line buffer memory
Next, the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line c is written in the 12a (12b).

In the averaging circuit 14, the other line buffer memory 12b (1
2a) image data corresponding to the averaged ultrasonic scanning line b and one line buffer memory 12a
Image data corresponding to the next ultrasonic scanning line c adjacent to the ultrasonic scanning line b read from (12b) is averaged and output.

In the image memory of the digital scan converter 9, the averaged image data is written in the corresponding address as the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line c.

Furthermore, this averaged image data is used in the control circuit (CP
U) 15 through one line buffer memory 12a (12b)
Written in. At this time, the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line d is next written in the other line buffer memory 12b (12a).

Thereafter, similarly, the image memory of the digital scan converter 9 includes one line buffer memory 12a (12b).
The image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scan line read from the image data and the image data obtained by averaging the data before the ultrasonic scan line read from the other line buffer memory 12b (12a) are averaged, and this cumulative average is obtained. The image data thus created are sequentially written to the corresponding addresses.

The image data read out from the image memory of the digital scan converter 9 at the TV scanning speed is transferred to the D / A converter 10 in the next stage.
The analog signal is applied to the TV monitor 11 and displayed as an image.

As described above, in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 1 of the present invention, the image data is averaged, so that the noise component can be removed, and further, the image data corresponding to each adjacent ultrasonic scanning line is sequentially averaged. 1/30 seconds different 1
It is possible to prevent blurring of the image even in the case of a fast-moving subject as in the conventional example in which the image data of the time phase before the frame is averaged, and it is possible to obtain a good image.

As another embodiment of the present invention, in the averaging circuit 14,
Weighted averaging may be performed instead of simply averaging.

In the above-described embodiment, two line buffer memories are provided to average the image data corresponding to the ultrasonic scanning line and the image data corresponding to the next ultrasonic scanning line adjacent to this ultrasonic scanning line. However, as another embodiment of the present invention, another line buffer memory is further provided, and the averaged image data and the ultrasonic scanning line adjacent to the next adjacent ultrasonic scanning line are further provided. You may comprise so that it may average with corresponding image data. Further, the output of the averaging circuit may be alternately written into the first and second line buffer memories and the average may be accumulated.

(F) Effect As described above, according to the present invention, the image data corresponding to each adjacent ultrasonic scanning line is averaged and sequentially written in the image memory of the digital scan converter. Can be removed,
Even in the case of a fast-moving subject, a clear image can be obtained without blurring the image. Moreover, since the image data corresponding to the adjacent ultrasonic scanning lines are cumulatively averaged, the noise component can be further removed as compared with the case of simply averaging.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the averaging process of the embodiment of the figure, and FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the averaging process of the conventional example. 1 ... Ultrasonic diagnostic device, 2 ... Transducer, 3 ...
… Transmit / receive circuit, 9 …… Digital scan converter, 12
a, 12b ... First and second line buffer memories, 13 ... switching circuit, 14 ... averaging circuit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A wave transmission / reception circuit for exciting and driving a transducer, receiving an output signal from the transducer, and a digital scan converter for writing and reading image data based on the output signal from the wave transmission / reception circuit. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: at least two first and second lines for storing image data corresponding to one line of an ultrasonic scanning line and an output of an averaging circuit, respectively, before the input side of the digital scan converter. A buffer memory, and image data based on the output signal from the transmitting / receiving circuit,
Corresponding to a switching circuit for alternately switching and outputting to the first and second line buffer memories for each line of ultrasonic scanning lines, and an ultrasonic scanning line read from one of the line buffer memories of the two line buffer memories. Averaging circuit for averaging the image data to be read and the image data obtained by averaging the data before the ultrasonic scanning line read from the other line buffer memory, the switching circuit, the line buffer memory, and the averaging circuit. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: a circuit and a control circuit for controlling the digital scan converter, and providing the digital scan converter with image data averaged by the averaging circuit.