JPH074360B2 - Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and more particularly to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having a cine image storage memory that stores image data for a predetermined period.

[Conventional technology]

In general, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus transmits ultrasonic waves from an ultrasonic transducer called a probe into a living body such as a human body, and analyzes reflected ultrasonic echoes from the inside of the living body to determine the internal tissue structure inside the living body. Etc. are diagnosed.

In such an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, an apparatus provided with a cine image storage memory (hereinafter referred to as a cine memory) is provided. This cine memory stores diagnostic image data within a predetermined period near the freeze timing when the diagnostic image is frozen. Therefore, by reading and reproducing the contents of the cine memory after freezing, it is possible to observe, record, measure and diagnose images before and after the freeze timing even if the freeze timing is inappropriate, which is very convenient. It is a function.

By the way, generally, in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, B mode,
A plurality of operation modes such as the M mode can be selected by the key. The storage area of the cine memory is also set according to the selected operation mode. For example, when the B mode is selected, the image data obtained under the B mode operating state is stored in the entire area of the cine memory. When the B / M mode is selected, the cine memory is divided into an area for storing B-mode image data and an area for storing M-mode image data, and the image data corresponding to each divided area is sequentially stored. It has become so.

At the time of reproduction, the operation mode is set to the mode in which the image data is stored in the cine memory, and the image data stored in the cine memory in this operation mode is sequentially read and reproduced in the CRT.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

In the conventional device as described above, when the device is set to a predetermined operation mode and the image data is stored in the cine memory, when the image data is read from the cine memory and reproduced,
If the device does not match the operation mode when storing image data, the image will not be reproduced correctly.

For example, when the B / M mode is selected at the time of storing the image data and the B mode or the M mode is set at the time of reproduction, the image data of one or the other mode is not reproduced. Therefore, the operator must always pay attention to the setting of the operation mode when reproducing the image data.

Further, as shown in the above example, when the image data is stored in the cine memory in the B / M mode, the cine memory is divided into a B mode area and an M mode area. With such usage of cine memory, even when the image data of each mode is very small compared to the memory capacity, the entire cine memory is allocated to the area for each mode data and the image data in other operation modes can be stored. However, there is a problem that the use efficiency of the cine memory is poor.

An object of the present invention is to automatically set the operation mode of the apparatus to an appropriate mode when reading and reproducing the image data from the cine memory, which eliminates the need for operator's work and enables effective use of the memory. An object is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention includes an operation mode setting means for setting an operation mode of the apparatus, a coding means for coding the operation mode selected by the operation mode setting means, and a cine image storage memory. have.

The cine image storage memory stores the image data of a predetermined period obtained under the operation mode selected by the operation mode setting unit and the code obtained by the encoding unit in association with each other. It is a thing.

[Action]

In the present invention, the operation mode set in the device is coded, and the code is added to the image data obtained under the set operation mode and stored in the cine image storage memory.

When the image data is read from the cine image storage memory and reproduced, a code indicating which operation mode the image data was obtained with is read together with the image data. Then, the operation mode at the time of reproduction is determined according to the read code. Therefore, the image data read from the cine image storage memory is automatically set to the operation mode when the image data was stored,
Reproduced correctly on the display device.

Further, when storing image data, a code indicating the operation mode is associated with each image data and stored.
Each image data can be sequentially stored in the image data area of the cine image storage memory, and it is not necessary to divide the area for the image data of each mode like the cine image storage memory in the conventional device, and the cine image storage can be stored. The memory can be used effectively.

〔Example〕

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

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a probe 1 and a diagnostic apparatus main body mounted by the probe 1. The diagnostic apparatus main body has a tomographic data processing unit 3 and a blood flow data processing unit 4, which are controlled by the CPU 2. The tomographic data processing unit 3 has an amplifier 5 and an A / D conversion circuit 6. Further, the blood flow data processing unit 4 includes a detection circuit 7 for phase-detecting the output of the amplifier 5, an A / D conversion circuit 8, and a digital signal processor (DSP) for performing a fast Fourier transform (FET) calculation process. ) 9 and.

Outputs of the tomographic data processing unit 3 and the blood flow data processing unit 4 are connected to a color processing unit 10. Color processing unit 10
Is for associating the tomographic data obtained from the tomographic data processing unit 3 with the blood flow data obtained from the blood flow data processing unit 4 for color threshold processing. In the subsequent stage of the color processing unit 10, a cine memory 11, an encoding circuit 13 for encoding the operation mode set by the keyboard 12, a digital scan converter (DSC) 14 having a buffer memory, and a CRT display by the DSC 14. An image memory 15 for storing the image data converted into the signal for use is connected. Then, the data stored in the image memory 15 is displayed on the display (CRT) 16.

Next, the operation will be described.

The echo signal received by the probe 1 is sent to the amplifier 5 and A /
It is processed by the D conversion circuit 6 and input to the color processing unit 10 as tomographic data. On the other hand, the output from the amplifier 5 is input to the detection circuit 7 where phase detection is performed and converted into sine wave and cosine wave Doppler signals. This Doppler signal is converted into a digital signal by the A / D conversion circuit 8 and the DSP9
Entered in. The DSP 9 performs a FET calculation process to calculate a Doppler spectrum value, an echo intensity, an average value, a dispersion value, etc., and outputs these data to the color processing unit 10. In the color processing unit 10, the tomographic data from the A / D conversion circuit 6 and the blood flow data are associated with each other and color threshold processing is performed.

The data processed by the color processing unit 10 is the DSC1
The image data is input to the buffer memory 4 and then the image data is output from the DSC 14 to the image memory 15 and displayed as a color tomographic image by the display 16.

At this time, if the keyboard 12 is instructed to store the image data in the cine memory 11, the image data for a predetermined period is stored in the cine memory 11 while being updated one after another. Also,
Operation mode such as B mode or B / M mode is keyboard 1
Although set by 2, this operation mode is analyzed by the CPU 2 and output as a control signal to each circuit. In addition, the state of the DSC14 controlled according to the operation mode is the coding circuit 1
Output to 3. In the encoding circuit 13, this information (operation mode) is encoded, and when the image data is stored in the cine memory 11, it is stored in association with the image data. At this time, parameters such as a patient identification code and diagnostic conditions are also stored in the cine memory 11.

FIG. 2 shows the contents of the cine memory 11 when each data is stored in the cine memory 11 as described above. For example, in the area corresponding to the stored image number, the code number for identifying the patient is stored in the area A (parameter area) at the time of diagnosis in each designated area. In addition, in the area B (image data area) following the parameter area A, the operation mode when the image data is stored is coded for each line of image data together with the image data, and one line for each line is coded. It is stored in association with the minute data.

When the image data in the cine memory 11 is read out and reproduced, the stored image number is designated from the keyboard 12. Then, each data in the area is read. At this time, the code indicating the operation mode is decoded by the decoding unit of the encoding circuit 13 and output to the DSC 14 as a control signal. As a result, the DSC 14 is controlled to the operation mode when the read image data is stored. Then, the image data read from the cine memory 11 is output to the DSC 14 and converted into a signal that can be displayed on the display unit 16 to be converted into an image memory.
Output to 15.

In such an embodiment, the operation state of the DSC 14 is controlled according to the stored image data, and the image data is always reproduced correctly on the display 16.

Therefore, the operator can easily reproduce the image data correctly simply by pressing the reproduction key.

Further, since image data in various operation modes are sequentially stored in the cine memory 11 together with codes indicating the operation modes, the operation modes (especially B / M mode and B mode
It is not necessary to divide the cine memory 11 by / M / D mode). Therefore, when the amount of image data is smaller than that of the cine memory 11, the data of, for example, B mode, M mode, B / M mode can be stored in order, and the cine memory 11 can be used effectively. can do.

In addition, although the present invention is applied to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including both the tomographic data processing unit and the blood flow data processing unit in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is similarly applied to an apparatus including only the tomographic data processing unit. can do.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, in the present invention, the operation mode is coded and stored in the cine memory in association with the image data.
When reproducing the image data in the cine memory, the operation mode according to the image data can be automatically set, and a correct reproduced image can always be obtained. Further, the image data can be sequentially stored in the cine memory, which improves the usage efficiency of the cine memory.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of area division of a cine memory of the apparatus. 2 ... CPU, 11 ... Cine memory, 12 ... Keyboard, 13
...... Coding circuit, 14 …… DSC, 15 …… Image memory.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An operation mode setting means for setting an operation mode of the apparatus, an encoding means for encoding the operation mode selected by the operation mode setting means, and an operation selected by the operation mode setting means. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising: a cine image storage memory that stores image data obtained under a mode for a predetermined period and codes obtained by the encoding means in association with each other.