JPH078488A - Ultrasonic diagnostic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the ultrasonic diagnostic device which synthesizes cardiac sounds as systolic/diastolic identification signals of heart on electrocardiograms and displays these electrocardiograms in superposing on ultrasonic diagnostic images with substantially no change in the capacity of a memory. CONSTITUTION:This ultrasonic diagnostic device has an electrocardiograph 22 which receives the electric signals of the activity of the heart from a sensor 20 in order to detect the electrocardiograms first to form the integrated living body signals to be displayed in superposition on the ultrasonic tomographic images, a phonocardiograph 32 which receives the cardiac sounds from a microphone 30 in order to detect the cardiac sounds and an identification signal forming section 34 which forms the identification signals to identify the time phase of the heart from the cardiac sounds outputted from this phonocardiograph 32. A DSC 24 has a memory 26 which adds the 6-bit electrocardiogram signals from the electrocardiograph 22 and the 1-bit identification signals from the identification signal forming section 34 and inputs these signals as the 7-bit living body signals and an identification signal synthesizing section 28 which synthesizes the identification signals stored in this memory 26 with the electrocardiogram signals.

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 for displaying an image by synthesizing or superimposing a biological signal on an ultrasonic diagnostic image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a heart is examined by an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, the time phase of diastole or systole is based on the fact that the motion of the heart has the periodicity of diastole and systole. We are observing the movement of the heart and abnormal blood flow.

In general, an electrocardiogram is mainly used as a biological signal for identifying a time phase, and a heart sound is also added to analyze the time phase in more detail. The electrocardiographic waveform is composed of an R wave and a T wave as shown in FIG. 5, but the R wave is used as a reference as electrocardiographic information. The time phase of the R wave is the end diastole (the time phase when the left ventricle is most dilated), and the R wave is easy to detect electrically, and the R phase is identified based on the detected R wave and the heart rate based on the RR interval. Etc. can be measured. On the contrary,
At the end systole, there is no characteristic waveform for identifying the time phase, and if it is performed by force, the end of the T wave is regarded as the end of systole.

Therefore, conventionally, the II sound of the heart sound is used as an index as a supplementary means for accurately identifying the end systolic time phase. The heart sounds used here are used instead of a clock and are used by paying attention to the sounds I and II shown in FIG.
The I sound is a composite sound of a mitral valve closing sound of the heart and an aortic valve opening sound, and starts with a delay of 40 to 60 msec from the R wave of the electrocardiogram. On the other hand, sound II consists of an aortic valve closing sound component and a pulmonary artery closing sound component. From the above, the period from sound I to sound II corresponds to the systole of the heart.

Therefore, conventionally, when performing a detailed inspection, ultrasonic diagnostic image data (B mode, M mode, DO
The data of the electrocardiogram and the heart sound were superposed on the image together with the data of P mode and the like) (see FIG. 6, FIG. 6 is an ultrasonic tomographic image of B mode).

[0006]

However, displaying a heart sound by a burst wave requires a large number of bits and a large capacity memory. Further, since it is necessary to increase the sampling speed to improve the resolution, a high speed A / D converter is also required. Therefore, there is a problem that the cost is high and the scale of the apparatus is large.

Further, if only the heart sounds are superimposed and displayed for cost reduction, there is a problem that the accurate movement of the heart cannot be grasped and the measurement becomes rough.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional problems, and an object thereof is to synthesize a heart sound into an electrocardiogram as a systolic / diastolic discrimination signal of the heart without substantially changing the capacity of the memory. Another object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that superimposes and displays it on an ultrasonic diagnostic image.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 forms an image by the information of the echo signal of the ultrasonic beam, and displays the information of the biological signal together with this image. In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus displayed in, an identification signal forming unit that forms an identification signal from a plurality of received biological signals, and an identification signal combining unit that combines the received identification signal into one received biological signal, The present invention is characterized in that a biomedical signal obtained by synthesizing an identification signal is displayed on a screen so as to be superimposed on an ultrasonic diagnostic image.

The invention according to claim 2 forms the image by the information of the echo signal of the ultrasonic beam, and the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus displays the information of the biological signal together with the image on the screen. An identification signal forming unit that forms an identification signal from one biological signal, and an identification signal that combines the mark signal at the start point and the end point of the identification signal formed in the identification signal forming unit with the received second biological signal And a second biomedical signal obtained by synthesizing the first biomedical signal together with the ultrasonic diagnostic image and displayed on the screen.

Further, the invention according to claim 3 is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for forming a tomographic image by information of an echo signal of an ultrasonic beam, and displaying the information of a biological signal together with the tomographic image on an image display section. An identification signal forming unit that forms an identification signal from the received first biological signal, and a brightness modulation of a part of the display of the received second biological signal based on the identification signal formed in the identification signal forming unit. An identification signal synthesizing unit that changes the color or the thickness of the display line,
And is displayed on the screen by superimposing the first biological signal together with the second biological signal on the ultrasonic diagnostic image.

[0012]

According to the structure of the first aspect, since the identification signal forming section for forming the identification signal from the plurality of received biomedical signals is provided, the number of bits of the memory can be significantly reduced, and the high speed A / D can be performed. No converter needed. In addition, since it has an identification signal synthesizing unit for synthesizing the identification signal with one received biological signal, it is possible to integrate the biological signal to be superimposed on the ultrasonic diagnostic image and to accurately grasp the movement of the biological body. it can.

According to the second and third aspects of the invention, since the identification signal forming section for forming the identification signal from the received first biomedical signal is provided, the number of bits of the memory can be greatly reduced, and high speed operation can be achieved. No A / D converter required.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an identification signal synthesizing unit for synthesizing the mark signals at the start point and the end point of the identification signal formed by the identification signal forming unit and the received second biological signal. Since it has, it is possible to integrate the biomedical signal to be superimposed on the ultrasonic diagnostic image and to accurately grasp the movement of the living body.

Further, the identification signal formed by the identification signal forming section is superposed on the received second biomedical signal, and the luminance modulation, color change or thickness of the display line of the superposed portion of the second biometric signal is displayed. Since the identification signal synthesizing unit that changes the signal is included, it is possible to integrate the biomedical signal to be superimposed on the ultrasonic diagnostic image and accurately grasp the movement of the living body.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention.

In order to form an ultrasonic tomographic image signal, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention includes a transceiver 12 for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a heart of a subject by an ultrasonic probe 10, particularly an ultrasonic sector probe. And an A / D converter 14 for converting the received ultrasonic echo signal into a digital signal.

Further, in order to form a biological signal to be superposed on the ultrasonic tomographic image, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention is installed on both the ankles and the right wrist of a subject to detect an electrocardiogram. and three sensor 20 for electrocardiograph from sensor 20 receives as an electric signal the activity of the heart (ECG: E lec
and a tro c ardio g ram) 22. on the other hand,
Microphone 3 installed above the heart to detect heart sounds
0, and a heart sound meter (PCG:
And P hono c ardio g ram) 32 , and an identification signal forming unit 34 for forming an identification signal identifying the time phase of the heart from the heart sound.

Then, an electrocardiographic signal of n bits (6 bits in the case of this embodiment) from the electrocardiograph 22 is outputted to the identification signal forming section 3.
Identification signals of 4 to 1 bits are output respectively, and these signals are added to obtain n + 1 bits (7 in the case of this embodiment).
DSC (Digital Scan Conve
rter) 24. The DSC24 has A /
Ultrasonic tomographic image data is also input from the D converter 14. The configuration and operation of the identification signal forming unit 34 will be described later. Note that the DSC temporarily scans the ultrasonic waves for Di
This is a device (scan conversion unit) that converts the digital data into digital data, stores it in memory, converts it into the standard scan system of the TV, and reads it.

The DSC 24 has a memory 26 for separately storing the added n + 1-bit biological signal and ultrasonic tomographic image data, and an identification signal synthesizing section 28 for synthesizing the identification signal into an electrocardiographic signal. The memory state of the added n + 1-bit biomedical signal in the memory 26 and the identification signal synthesis unit 28
The operation of will be described later.

Further, the DSC 24 outputs an electrocardiographic signal obtained by combining the ultrasonic tomographic image data and the identification signal to the monitor 36. Therefore, the biomedical signals are integrated into one signal and can be displayed without overlapping the ultrasonic tomographic image.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the configuration of the identification signal forming section 34 of FIG. FIG. 3 shows a process in which the heart sounds are converted into identification signals, that is, I and II sound interval signals by the configuration of FIG.

First, the heart sound is converted into a pulse signal (for example, a heart sound trigger signal) by the I sound / II sound extraction circuit 40 and input to the I, II sound section signal generation circuit 42. I,
In the II sound section signal generation circuit 42, from the rising edge of the pulse signal of the I sound to the rising edge of the pulse signal of the II sound,
Generates a II sound section signal. In this way, since the heart sound signal is converted into the I and II sound section signals, a high-speed A / D converter is not required and the device can be downsized.

FIG. 4 shows a storage state of the added n + 1-bit biomedical signal in the memory 26. That is, 1 bit of the data of the I and II sound section signals described above is added to the 6-bit electrocardiographic signal data, and the electrocardiographic signal and the heart sound signal are stored without distinction. Therefore, it can be stored without increasing the capacity of the memory.

FIG. 5 shows a display example of a biological signal of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention. Display example 1 and display example 2 are display examples for accurately grasping the electrocardiogram in the time phase of the systole of the heart.

In the case of Display Example 1 , the identification signal synthesizing unit 28 in the DSC 24 in FIG. 1 uses the I, II sound section signal data stored in the 7th bit
A mark signal for discriminating the rising and falling positions of the II sound section signal is displayed on the monitor 3 together with the 6-bit electrocardiographic signal.
Send to 6. Specific examples of the marks include I and II.
Mark 1 (▲) may be added below the electrocardiographic waveform at positions corresponding to the rising and falling positions of the sound section signal,
Alternatively, the mark 2 indicating the section from the rising edge to the falling edge of the I, II sound section signal may be added below the electrocardiographic waveform.
Further, a mark may be added on the electrocardiographic waveform.

In the case of Display Example 2, the identification signal synthesizing unit 28 in FIG. 1 converts the data of the I and II sound section signals stored in the 7th bit into the I and II sound section signals in the 6-bit electrocardiographic signal. Brightness modulation of the electrocardiographic waveform corresponding to the section from the rise to the fall, color change, display line thickness change, etc. are performed, and the identification signal (in the case of this embodiment, I, II sound section signal) is output. The composite signal combined with the electrocardiographic signal is transmitted to the monitor 36.

As described above, since the mark indicating the contraction period of the heart and the brightness modulation, the color change or the change in the thickness of the display line are applied together with the electrocardiographic signal, one electrocardiographic waveform
The movement of the heart can be accurately grasped.

In this embodiment, a heart sound is combined with an electrocardiogram as a biomedical signal and used. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Instead of the heart sound, a carotid artery wave, an apical pulsation wave, and D from a polygraph are used.
The C input (for example, a pressure waveform captured by a catheter) or respiration may be combined with the electrocardiogram.

In the present embodiment, the biomedical signal is superimposed on the display of the B-mode ultrasonic tomographic image, but the present invention is not limited to this. The biomedical signal is superimposed on any of the A mode, M mode and DOP mode. You may let me.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The number of bits of memory can be greatly reduced, and high-speed A
Does not require a / D converter. Therefore, the device can be downsized at a low cost. In addition, since the first biological signal, for example, a heart sound is used as an identification signal for synthesis or superimposition on the second biological signal, for example, an electrocardiogram, it is possible to integrate the biological signal to be superimposed on the ultrasonic diagnostic image and accurately Can grasp the movement of.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an identification signal forming unit in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the identification signal forming unit of FIG.
It is a figure which shows the process of converting into a sound area signal.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a storage state of an added n + 1-bit biomedical signal in a memory.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a biological signal of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a biological signal superimposed on an ultrasonic tomographic image in a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 probe 12 transceiver 14 A / D converter 20 sensor 22 ECG (electrocardiograph) 24 DSC 26 memory 28 identification signal synthesis section 30 microphone 32 PCG (heart sound meter) 34 identification signal forming section 36 monitor

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for forming an image by information of an echo signal of an ultrasonic beam, and displaying the image together with the information of a biological signal together with the image, forms an identification signal from a plurality of received biological signals. An identification signal forming section for synthesizing the identification signal with one received biomedical signal, and a biosignal obtained by synthesizing the identification signal is displayed on the screen by being superimposed on the ultrasonic diagnostic image. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus characterized by the above. 2. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for forming an image by information of an echo signal of an ultrasonic beam and displaying the information of the biomedical signal together with the image on the screen, the identification signal from the received first biomedical signal. An identification signal forming section that forms an identification signal forming section; and an identification signal combining section that combines the mark signals at the start point and the end point of the identification signal formed in the identification signal forming section and the received second biological signal, An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, characterized in that the second biological signal, which is a combination of the first biological signal, is displayed on the screen together with the ultrasonic diagnostic image. 3. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for forming a tomographic image by information of an echo signal of an ultrasonic beam, and displaying the tomographic image together with the information of a biological signal on an image display unit. And an identification signal forming section that forms an identification signal from the above, and based on the identification signal formed in the identification signal forming section, brightness modulation, color change, or display line thickening of a part of the received second biological signal. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising: an identification signal synthesizing unit that changes the height, and displaying the first biological signal together with the second biological signal on the ultrasonic diagnostic image on the screen.