JPH10314169A - Ultrasonic diagnostic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display time information at the time of reproducing an ultrasonic picture in an easily understandable state by recording at least one time information of a collecting time collecting echo signals and a passing time from the start of scanning to the collecting time and recording time information with a reproduce-displayed ultrasonic picture. SOLUTION: An ultrasonic picture signal from a B mode processing unit 4 in a picture recording memory 10 through an input buffer 9 and a real time clock circuit 13 outputs time in a time information memory. When an operator presses a recording button on a console when a picture he thinks it important is displayed, a logical product of a writing signal from CPU 1 and an over frame signal is taken and when both of the signals stand, a control circuit 8 updates writing address of time information. At the time of reproducing, time information linked with an ultrasonic picture signal read from the memory 10 is sent to a digital scanning converter 5 and simultaneously displayed on the same screen with the ultrasonic picture by a monitor.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for scanning a section of a subject with ultrasonic waves to collect echo signals, obtaining an ultrasonic image signal based on the echo signals, and displaying the ultrasonic image signals in real time. The present invention also relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of recording the ultrasonic image signal in a memory and reproducing and displaying the ultrasonic image signal read from the memory.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are various medical applications of ultrasonic waves, and the mainstream is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for tomographic images of soft tissues of a living body using an ultrasonic pulse reflection method. This ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is a non-invasive examination method and displays a tomographic image of a tissue. Compared with other diagnostic apparatuses such as an X-ray diagnostic apparatus, an X-ray CT apparatus, an MRI, and a nuclear medicine diagnostic apparatus, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is real-time. It has unique features such as display capability, small and inexpensive device, high safety without exposure to X-rays, and the ability to perform blood flow imaging by the ultrasonic Doppler method.

[0003] Therefore, it is widely used in the heart, abdomen, mammary gland, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, and the like. In particular, the heartbeat and the movement of the fetus can be obtained in real time with a simple operation of simply touching the ultrasonic probe from the body surface, and since it is highly safe, it can be repeatedly inspected and moved to the bedside The inspection is simple and easy.

[0004] Many of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatuses having various advantages as described above allow an operator to visually recognize an ultrasonic image displayed in real time and store an ultrasonic image considered important as a moving image or a still image in a memory. And a function of reading out the recorded ultrasonic image from the memory after scanning and displaying the image on a monitor (reproducing display).

With this function, it is possible to observe the ultrasonic image slowly and carefully while taking full advantage of frame advance and stationary, and to adjust the position of the cursor to the measurement target site accurately and slowly. It is now possible to make detailed and high-precision diagnoses by measuring the size and the like.

Further, a graph called a time density curve showing how a contrast agent administered to a subject flows into and out of a site of interest over time is created, and this is observed. More detailed and quantitative diagnosis can now be made.

As the time density curve, the luminance of a region of interest is extracted from each frame of the ultrasonic image signal recorded as a moving image, and the extracted luminance is sequentially determined at intervals of a known frame period at the time of scanning. It is created by plotting on the time axis.
For this plotting, the context of the frames is necessary, but this recognition is performed by the frame numbers sequentially assigned to the frames from the start of scanning.

In making a diagnosis, it is necessary to refer to time information such as the time at which the echo signal was collected, that is, the actual scan time, the time difference between adjacent frames, or the time difference between temporally separated frames. There is.

Normally, a reproduced ultrasonic image is provided with a frame number, so that such time information can be converted from a frame period. However, such a task was very troublesome and could not be said to be error-free.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of displaying time information such as the time at which echo signals of each frame are collected and the time difference between frames when reproducing an ultrasonic image. To provide.

[0011]

According to the present invention, an echo signal is collected by scanning a cross section of a subject with an ultrasonic wave, an ultrasonic image signal is obtained based on the echo signal, and the ultrasonic image signal is processed in real time. In the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus capable of displaying and displaying the ultrasonic image signal in a recording unit and reproducing and displaying the ultrasonic image signal read from the recording unit, the acquisition time and the collection time of the echo signal ,
It is possible to record time information of at least one of the elapsed time from the start of scanning to the collection time, and display the recorded time information together with the reproduced and displayed ultrasonic image.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to a first embodiment. In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present embodiment, an ultrasonic probe 2, an ultrasonic transmitting / receiving circuit (T / R) 3, a B-mode processing unit 4, a digital scan converter ( 1 includes a DSC 5, a monitor 6, and an image memory unit (IM unit) 7.

The ultrasonic probe 2 has a plurality of micro piezoelectric elements arranged at an end thereof for mediating between an ultrasonic transmitting / receiving circuit 3 for handling an electric signal and a subject side for providing in-vivo information to the ultrasonic waves. Has in part. The form of the probe 2 is arbitrarily selected from among sectors, linear, convex, and the like.

The ultrasonic transmitting / receiving circuit 3 comprises an ultrasonic transmitting circuit and an ultrasonic receiving circuit. An ultrasonic transmission circuit for transmitting an ultrasonic wave from the ultrasonic probe 2 to a subject includes a pulse generator, a transmission delay circuit, and a pulser. The pulse generator outputs a rate pulse for determining the transmission rate of ultrasonic waves (the number of transmissions per second).

The rate pulse is given as a trigger pulse to the pulser after receiving an appropriate delay for determining the directivity of the ultrasonic wave in the transmission delay circuit. A high-frequency pulse is applied to the piezoelectric element of the probe 2 individually or in units of neighboring groups from the pulser in synchronization with the trigger pulse. The piezoelectric element of the probe 2 vibrates due to the high-frequency pulse from the pulser, and an ultrasonic wave is transmitted to the subject.

The scanning is performed as follows.
First, in the case of a typical sector scan, the above-described delay time is changed little by little for each transmission or every predetermined number of transmissions, so that the ultrasonic scanning line is gradually shaken. Also,
In the case of linear scanning, the ultrasonic scanning line is gradually translated by gradually moving the group of adjacent piezoelectric elements to be driven one by one or every predetermined number of transmissions while the above-described delay time is fixed. I will do it.

Such delay control and selection of the adjacent piezoelectric element group are returned to the same state as the first scanning line when the scanning line reaches the predetermined final position, and the same is repeated from there. . Such a periodic movement is performed on the basis of an overframe signal (OF1) oscillated at a constant cycle from an internal clock of the ultrasonic transmission / reception circuit 3 or the like. Such a period is generally called a “frame period”. This overframe signal (OF1)
It is drawn from the ultrasonic transmission / reception circuit 3 to the image memory unit 7 and is used for recording an ultrasonic image signal and recording time information, the details of which will be described later.

Returning to the description, the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the probe 2 to the subject propagates in the living body, and is reflected one after another on the discontinuous surface of the acoustic impedance in the middle. The echo due to this reflection returns to the probe 2 and vibrates the piezoelectric element. As a result, a weak electric signal is generated from the piezoelectric element.

This electric signal is taken into the ultrasonic receiving circuit. The ultrasonic receiving circuit includes a preamplifier, a receiving delay circuit, and an adder. The electric signal from the probe 2 is first amplified by a preamplifier, subjected to a delay similar to that at the time of transmission in a reception delay circuit, and then added by an adder. As a result, one reception signal having reception directivity is obtained.

This received signal is transmitted to the B-mode processing unit 4
Supplied to The B-mode processing unit 4 includes a detection circuit, a logarithmic amplifier, and an analog-to-digital converter. A signal component (echo signal) included in the received signal is extracted by a detection circuit, logarithmically amplified by a logarithmic amplifier, and further converted to a digital signal by an analog-to-digital converter.

This digital signal is converted into an ultrasonic image signal by the digital scan converter 5 by the TV.
The signal is converted into a serial signal sequence of the system, sent to the monitor 6, and displayed as a B-mode image (ultrasonic image) representing the tomographic tissue by shading.

The B-mode processing unit 4 performs a so-called color flow mapping process for obtaining a so-called blood flow image that two-dimensionally expresses a state of a blood flow, for example, so as to obtain an ultrasonic image of a type other than the B mode. It may be a unit.

The ultrasonic image signal output from the B-mode processing unit 4 is sent to the digital scan converter 5 and also to the image memory unit 7,
It is recorded there. The image memory unit 7 includes an image recording unit and a time information recording unit.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image recording unit. An ultrasonic image signal output from the B-mode processing unit 4 is sent to an image recording memory 10 via an input buffer 9 and written and recorded according to a write address signal from a control circuit 8.

The recording of the ultrasonic image signal is performed, for example, as follows. Here, it is assumed that the image recording memory 10 is virtually divided into a plurality of page areas, and one frame area is capable of writing an ultrasonic image signal for one frame.

When the operator views an ultrasonic image in real time and displays an image considered important, the operator presses a record button on a console (not shown). Then C
The write signal is supplied from PU1, and the control circuit 8 takes the logical product (AND) of this write signal and the overframe signal (OF1), and updates the page area when both signals are on. In other cases, the page area is not updated.

When the page area is not updated, the ultrasonic image signal is overwritten on the same page area one after another.
At one time, when the page area is updated, the writing area of the ultrasonic image signal is moved to the next page area, and the ultrasonic image signal last written in the page area before the transfer is not overwritten. It is left (recorded).

By such an operation, an ultrasonic image considered important by the operator can be freely recorded as a still image or a moving image. On the other hand, during reproduction (during non-real-time display), the ultrasonic image signal selectively read from the image recording memory 10 is sent to the digital scan converter 5 via the output buffer 11 and displayed on the monitor 6. Is done. By simply changing the reading conditions, it is possible to reproduce in various forms such as a moving image, a still image, or frame advance.

Next, recording and reproduction of time information will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the time information recording unit. The real-time clock circuit 13 outputs the actual time (hour / minute / second / millisecond) to the time information memory 14 with the minimum unit being seconds or milliseconds. As in the case of image recording, the operator presses a recording button (not shown) on the console when an image considered important is displayed while observing the ultrasonic image in real time. At this time, the logical product (AND) of the write signal supplied from the CPU 1 and the overframe signal (OF1) is obtained, and when both signals are on, the control circuit 8 updates the write address of the time information. Do not update when

When the write address is not updated, the same address is successively overwritten with time information. At one time, when the address is updated, the time information written at the address immediately before the update is not overwritten. It is left (recorded).

By such an operation, it is possible to record the time (scan time) when the echo signal which is the basis of the ultrasonic image recorded by the operator as important is collected.

On the other hand, at the time of reproduction (at the time of non-real-time display), time information linked to the ultrasonic image signal selectively read from the image recording memory 10 is sent to the digital scan converter 5 as character string data. Sent in,
Then, as shown in FIG. 4, the ultrasonic image and the same screen are simultaneously displayed on the monitor 6.

When an ultrasonic image is reproduced in this manner, the scan time of the image is displayed together with the image.
The observer can easily grasp time information such as a scan time and a time difference between frames. (Second Embodiment) In the first embodiment, the scan time of a recorded image is recorded in absolute time of hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds, and can be displayed. In the second embodiment, the operator can select either the absolute time or the elapsed time from the time when the main power of the apparatus is turned on and the scan is first started for a patient to the time when the recorded image is scanned. It is characterized in that it can be freely selected and recorded.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a time information recording unit according to the second embodiment, which has a different configuration from the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the first embodiment. Time control circuit 1
5, real time clock circuit 16, time information memory 2
2 is basically the same as that of the first embodiment, but either the absolute time from the real-time clock circuit 16 or the count value from the counter 19 is stored in the time information memory 22 via the multiplexer (MUX) 21. To be selectively supplied and recorded. Which one is recorded, that is, which information is sent to the time information memory 22, can be freely switched by a switching control signal supplied from the counter control circuit 20 to the multiplexer 21 in accordance with a switching command input from a console (not shown) by an operator. .

The counter 19 selectively receives a clock pulse output from the clock circuit 17 at a one-second cycle or a millisecond cycle, and an overframe signal (OF1) from the ultrasonic transmission / reception circuit 3 via the multiplexer 18. Supplied. Whichever is supplied to the counter 19 and the counter 1
A counter control circuit according to a switching command input by an operator from a console (not shown) determines whether to count at 9, that is, to count the elapsed time from the start of scanning in 1 second or millisecond as a minimum unit, or to count at a frame period. Switching can be freely performed by a switching control signal supplied from the control unit 20 to the multiplexer 18. Note that this switching may be automatically performed according to the application. For example, an application may use a Time Density Curve (TDC) to observe the temporal changes in brightness commonly used in contrast examination.
In such a case, when the application is activated, the elapsed time is automatically selected to be counted in one second or millisecond as a minimum unit.

The count value of the counter 19 is automatically initialized to "0" when the scan state is returned from the freeze to the live state, as well as when the scan is first started after the main power is turned on. Is done. By the U / D switching, the count of the counter 19 can be switched not only from 1 to 1 but also from the predetermined value to DOWN one by one. The counting can be freely switched between a binary number and a hexadecimal number.

As described above, in the second embodiment, the time information is represented by the absolute time of hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds, or the time elapsed from the scan start time (second or millisecond). Can be freely selected and recorded. The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and can be implemented with various modifications.

[0038]

According to the present invention, at the time of reproducing an ultrasonic image, time information such as the time at which the echo signal of each frame was collected and the time difference between frames can be displayed in an easily understandable manner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image recording unit in the image memory unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a time information recording unit in the image memory unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a display screen displayed on the monitor of FIG. 1 at the time of image reproduction display.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a time information recording unit according to a second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... CPU, 2 ... Ultrasonic probe, 3 ... Ultrasonic transmission / reception circuit, 4 ... B-mode processing unit, 5 ... Digital scan converter, 6 ... Monitor, 7 ... Image memory unit, 8 ... Control circuit, 9 ... Input buffer, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Image recording memory, 11 ... Output buffer, 12 ... Time information control circuit, 13 ... Real time clock circuit, 14 ... Time information memory, 15 ... Time information control circuit, 16 ... Real time clock circuit, 17 ... Clock circuit, 18 ... Multiplexer, 19: Counter, 20: Counter control circuit, 21: Multiplexer, 22: Time information memory.

Claims (3)

[Claims] An ultrasonic signal is collected by scanning a cross section of a subject with an ultrasonic wave, an ultrasonic image signal is obtained based on the echo signal, and the ultrasonic image signal is displayed in real time. Recording the image signal in the recording means,
In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of reproducing and displaying the ultrasonic image signal read from the recording unit, at least one of a collection time at which the echo signal was collected and an elapsed time from the start of scanning to the collection time. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of recording information and displaying the recorded time information together with the reproduced and displayed ultrasonic image. 2. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an operator can select which of the collection time and the elapsed time is to be recorded. 3. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an operator can select whether to record the time information in units of seconds or milliseconds.