JPH11128227A - Organism measurement device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve diagnostic precision and make diagnosis objective in diagnosis of a motion condition and tissue characteristics of a dynamic organ such as a heart, by equipping an organism signal detecting means, an organism parameter calculating means, an organism parameter synthesizing means, and an organism parameter comparing means. SOLUTION: This organism measurement device is connected to an organism signal detecting means 10, and organism parameter calculating means 20, an organism parameter synthesizing means 30, and an organism parameter comparing means 40. The detecting means 10 detects a signal relating to one or both of motion and tissue characteristics of a dynamic organ such as a heart, the calculating means 20 detects an original parameter relating to one or both of motion and tissue characteristics from a received signal from the former process, the synthesizing means 30 converts the original parameter to a parameter necessary for comparing plural signals in the following process, and the organism parameter comparing means compares and displays those plural parameters.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic measuring apparatus suitable for stress echocardiography.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for a heart, a tomographic echocardiogram, an M-mode echocardiogram, a Doppler echocardiogram, a tomographic Doppler echocardiogram, and the like are displayed together with an electrocardiogram. When such a device is used, the dynamics of the wall of the heart are drawn in real time, so that the outline of the exercise state can be known.

[0003] Furthermore, from the M-mode echocardiogram, it is possible to quantitatively measure an ejection fraction, a stroke volume, a left ventricle diameter shortening ratio, and other parameters relating to heart wall motion. In the Doppler echocardiogram, for example, the blood flow in the inflow channel and the outflow channel of the left ventricle can be quantitatively measured. Recently, there have been cases in which coronary blood flow was also measured. By observing the intensity of the echo, the state of the motion state of the myocardial wall, and the state of the tissue Doppler or the like, it is also possible to know a part of the hardness and other tissue properties in each part of the wall.

With the use of the stress echocardiography, it is possible to detect a wall motion abnormality that appears only during a load.
According to this method, it is possible to compare a normal exercise at rest and an abnormal exercise under load, so that it is relatively easy to grasp the degree of the abnormality.

[0005]

As described above, if the load echocardiography is used, it is possible to read as a myocardial wall motion abnormality at the time of load from the measurement based on the tomographic echocardiogram. However, in order to perform a medical evaluation as to whether it is normal or abnormal, skill is required in the technique, and the evaluation result is poor in objectivity because it is based on pattern recognition. Therefore, it is not easy to judge that it is abnormal at a stage when it is not serious.

Similarly, when the M-mode echocardiography is used in the load echocardiography, the motion state of the myocardium at the position where the ultrasonic beam is directed can be quantitatively measured. No information can be collected. Moreover, even if the movement is limited to the movement of the beam position itself, skill is required in the technique and in the medical evaluation of the measured value, and the objectivity is also poor.

According to the Doppler echocardiogram, by measuring the carotid blood flow or the aortic outflow blood flow,
For example, in the case where the ejection volume decreases despite the application of a load, it can be detected that the myocardial function at the time of the load has decreased. However, when the local myocardial function declines, the myocardium in other parts compensates for the function and keeps the function as the heart.

As described above, in any of the above inspection methods, in quantitatively detecting a local wall motion abnormality, the quality of each data as diagnostic information is inferior.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a wall motion abnormality caused by a cardiac load is determined based on at least two parameters from among various parameters indicating a change in each state based on the wall motion abnormality or tissue properties. Is provided for displaying the comparison result over time. In this way, each part in the heart, that is, it is possible to compare with respect to the movement state or tissue properties as a plurality of local information, it is possible to detect with high sensitivity that a local abnormality has occurred,
In addition, it becomes easier to set a standard for quantitatively evaluating the abnormality that has occurred.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the present invention, a biological signal detecting means for detecting a biological signal of an organ which moves with a heartbeat such as a heart, a biological parameter calculating means for calculating a biological parameter from the detected signals, Biological parameter synthesizing means for synthesizing the obtained variables into expressions that are easy to evaluate,
A biological parameter comparing and displaying means for comparing and displaying the biological parameters in an expression that can be easily evaluated is provided.

The biological signal detecting means of the present invention is provided with means for detecting a signal relating to the motion state of the heart, ie, mechanical movement, as the detecting means.

As a means for detecting a signal relating to the mechanical movement, an ultrasonic transmitting / receiving means is suitable. According to the ultrasonic transmitting / receiving means, it is possible to detect the signals in the diastole and the systole by synchronizing the echo at the boundary between the heart wall and the blood layer with the heartbeat, or to detect the signals over time. These detected signals can be used as signals relating to mechanical movement.

When the echo is applied to the heart wall, primitive motion state parameters include left ventricle diameter including end-systole and end-diastole, interventricular septum thickness, posterior wall thickness, and septal wall. The parameters obtained by the conventional M-mode echocardiogram and tomographic echocardiogram such as the amplitude (excursion) of the posterior wall motion and the contraction time are appropriate.

As the biological parameter calculating means, there is provided an exercise state parameter estimating unit which is an means for estimating an exercise state parameter from the signal detected in the preceding stage.

The biological signal detecting means of the present invention is provided with means for detecting a signal relating to the tissue properties of the heart or blood vessel as the detecting means, and as the biological parameter calculating means, means for calculating the tissue property parameters from the detected signals. An organizational property parameter calculator will be provided.

The above-mentioned ultrasonic transmitting / receiving means can be used in combination as the biological signal detecting means relating to the above tissue properties.

When an echo is used for the heart wall, the above-mentioned tissue property parameters are appropriate for the intensity of the echo including the end-systole and the end-diastole, the echo spectrum, and the like.

The biological parameter synthesizing means has a function of calculating each variable as a relative change with respect to a resting state, and a function of calculating a difference, a quotient, a product, and a sum of two variables that can be selected to evaluate each variable in association with each other. It has a function to perform calculations including one or more.

In the biological parameter comparison display means, an expression for evaluating each parameter in association with each other is provided. For this purpose, primitive variables calculated by the biological parameter calculation means or two or more variables selected from new variables calculated by the biological parameter synthesis means are displayed so as to be compared.

It is appropriate that the display form is a numerical value, a two-dimensional display of XY coordinates, a temporal change waveform with respect to a time axis, or a combination thereof to display in parallel or overlap.

Various display methods are stored in a memory in the form of a menu, and the user can select one display method, a plurality of parallel display methods,
Alternatively, it is possible to select a multiple display method or a method of combining these. For lines and numerical values in various displays, color, thickness, etc. can be specified.

As a display method, various biological parameters in a special environment such as during a stress test or during anesthesia performed at the time of an operation are defined as a relative change with respect to rest at 1 as a reference, and a percentage change at 0 as a reference. The display method is appropriate.

An alarm generator is provided in the biological parameter comparison and display means. In this part, of the parameters for which the rising or falling direction should match on the waveform
A function is provided for detecting, for example, a case where the direction of change is different, a case where the ascending or descending is the same but the time is shifted, and a case where the variable to be changed stops changing.

According to the living body measuring apparatus configured as described above, it is possible to evaluate at least two variables among the biological parameters relating to the movement state of the tissue under load and the tissue properties.

During a load, the movement state and tissue properties of each part in the heart tend to have a uniform change such as ascending or descending in a healthy case, but when an ischemic part occurs, that part is replaced by another part. Will show a different change. The present invention can be applied to detecting a difference between changes in parameters at a plurality of different sites thus generated. Furthermore, the present invention can be applied to a case where there is an individual difference, that is, a difference between subjects, and also when the heart rate changes even for the same subject.

[0026]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the living body measuring apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 1 shows a configuration in which a biological signal detecting means 10, a biological parameter calculating means 20, a biological parameter synthesizing means 30, and a biological parameter comparing and displaying means 40 are connected.

The biological signal detecting means 10 detects a signal relating to one or both of the motion and tissue properties of a dynamic organ such as the heart. The biological parameter calculating means 20 detects primitive parameters relating to one or both of the motion and the tissue properties from the signal received from the preceding stage. The biological parameter synthesizing means 30 converts a plurality of parameters into parameters necessary for comparative display at a later stage, and sends them to the next stage including these parameters and the above primitive parameters. The biological parameter comparison display means 40 compares and displays these plural types of parameters.

The biological signal detecting means 10 is suitably an ultrasonic transmitting and receiving means, and the ultrasonic probe 1
1a and an ultrasonic transmission / reception unit 11b for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic pulses. The ultrasonic transmitting / receiving unit 11b amplifies the received signal and sends the amplified signal to the biological parameter calculating unit 20. The biological parameter calculating means 20 is configured by connecting a motion state parameter calculating section 21a and a tissue property parameter calculating section 21b in parallel, and calculates parameters relating to the motion state and the tissue property, respectively.

In the exercise state parameter calculation unit 21a,
The motion state of a dynamic organ such as the heart, for example, the left ventricular diameter, ventricular septum thickness, posterior wall thickness, etc. in end-systole and end-diastole, and the amplitude of the motion of the septal wall and posterior wall in one cardiac cycle ( Primitive parameters such as excursion and contraction time, which have been obtained by conventional M-mode echocardiography and tomographic echocardiography, are calculated.

The tissue property parameter calculator 21b detects the intensity of the wall echo and calculates the spectrum by, for example, Fourier transform. This can be treated as a parameter representing the tissue properties related to the viscoelasticity of the myocardial and vascular walls. The signal of the wall echo can be extracted from the voltage level difference or spectrum difference between the wall echo and the intracardiac echo appearing on the echogram.

The biological parameter synthesizing means 30 comprises a memory 31 for temporarily storing the output of the biological parameter calculating means 20, and an arithmetic unit 32 for performing an operation as shown in detail in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a calculation performed by the calculation unit 32 provided in the biological parameter synthesizing means 30. Here, the primitive data D group received from the biological parameter calculation means 20 via the memory 31 is the data as it is,
Then, the secondary data calculated for facilitating the comparison of the information on the local wall is sent to the biological parameter comparison and display means 40 at the next stage.

In FIG. 2, the operation unit 32 sends the primitive data as it is (data D) or performs the following operation. That is, the change amount ΔD, 2
The quotient D1 obtained by normalizing the product D1 · D2 between variables and D1 with D2
/ D2, an operation of D1-D2 taking a difference between D1 and D2,
And a combination thereof. For ΔD, the product △ D1 △ D2, the quotient △ D1 / △ D2, and the difference △ D1- △ D2
And other calculations.

Here, the suffixes 1, 2 described in D1 and D2
You can specify the parameters you want to compare as For example,
Appropriate for excursion of septum and posterior wall, change of septum and posterior wall thickness due to myocardial excitation and relaxation, contraction time of septum and posterior wall, etc. .

For D1 and D2, not only one of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division but also an ejection fraction calculated from the inner diameters of end-diastole and end-systole, an ejection volume, and a left ventricle are examples of the synthesis performed by the arithmetic unit 32. Appropriate is the inner diameter reduction rate and the like, and the exercise speed calculated from the excursions and contraction times of the ventricular septum and posterior wall.

In FIG. 1, the biological parameter comparing and displaying means 40 stores a memory 41 for temporarily storing the data received from the preceding biological parameter synthesizing means 30, and a menu of a plurality of kinds of display methods as shown in FIG. A display method designation unit 42, a display unit 43 such as a cathode ray tube, and an alarm generation unit 44 for generating an alarm when the designated variable exceeds a predetermined threshold. The alarm is appropriately displayed by sound or lighting.

FIG. 3 shows an example of display by the biological parameter comparison and display means 3, showing a state in which a load is applied for, for example, 4 minutes, and about 6 minutes thereafter. Fig. a shows an example in which three parameters are displayed over time. All three are examples of increasing and decreasing. In figure b, D1 increases, but D2 does not,
D3 and D4 show an example in which it is conversely reduced. FIG. c shows the difference, product, or quotient between the two parameters, and shows an example in which a certain threshold is exceeded. FIG. 11D is an example in which a spectrum having a certain width is displayed as D3.

FIG. 3A shows, for example, an excursion D1 of the ventricular septum (denoted as ΔD in FIG. 2), a back wall excursion D2, and a thickness of the interventricular septum, which are expressed as a relative change with respect to the rest during loading. The change in thickness D3 between the systole and the diastole and the change D4 in the posterior wall uniformly increase and decrease uniformly and are observed in a healthy case. b
In the figure, for example, D1 increases and then decreases, but D2
Indicates a course in which it decreases from the beginning, and D3 and D4 also decrease. This is an example of a case where coronary artery stenosis causes myocardial ischemia and abnormal local wall motion. In the example just described, since it is on one M-mode beam, it is possible to measure the data at the same time, and two different local walls, a part of the ventricular septum and a part of the posterior wall. This is an example in which parameters indicating exercise are compared.

In the case of a healthy example showing a uniform change shown in FIG. A, the difference between D1-D2 and D3-D4 is kept below a certain value when the difference is calculated, but as shown in FIG. When the courses do not match, the value of the difference between D1 and D2 greatly increases or decreases. Fig. c shows this example, and shows that an alarm can be generated if a certain threshold is set.

FIGS. 7A and 7B show examples in which a plurality of parameters are displayed in an overlapping manner. The diagram b and the diagram c can be displayed side by side. It is also possible to show the spectrum as shown in FIG.

In addition to the above, although not shown, the variables to be compared can be displayed in XY. In this case Y =
It is possible to know that an abnormality has occurred due to the deviation from the X line. Furthermore, it can also be displayed by a numerical value that changes every moment.

[0043]

The present invention is embodied in the form described above and has the following effects.

By providing the biological signal detecting means, the biological parameter calculating means, the biological parameter synthesizing means, and the biological parameter comparing and displaying means, the parameters relating to the biological movement state and the tissue properties can be excursed for two different localities, and two different localities can be obtained. For example, the wall thickness change, the contraction time of two different localities, the echo spectrum of two different localities, and the like can be displayed while comparing the localities.
As a result, we provide a completely new expression method and an early diagnosis method that were not possible with conventional methods in the diagnosis of the motion state of a dynamic organ such as the heart (diagnosis of function), and the diagnosis of tissue properties, and improved the diagnostic accuracy and objectivity Is to bring.

What is the new expression method and diagnostic method?
It is possible to evaluate in consideration of two factors, that is, an individual difference and that the same individual changes a heart rate and a physiological condition. In addition, it is possible to detect local wall motion abnormalities with high sensitivity even when parameters such as cardiac output and blood pressure as a total of the entire heart indicate normal, so it can be developed into an early detection method. it can.

The biological parameter detection / calculation means among the various means constituting the present invention can be handled by a conventionally known ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and the memory, the calculator and the display unit can be individually handled by the existing technology. It can be easily manufactured.

Since the present invention can detect local wall motion abnormalities, in other words, local function abnormalities with high sensitivity, it can be applied not only as a load test but also as a monitoring method during anesthesia during surgery.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a living body measurement device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating output of new data calculated by a biological parameter synthesizing unit and primitive data not calculated.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing that a plurality of parameters related to biological parameters are compared and displayed.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 biological signal detecting means 20 biological parameter calculating means 30 biological parameter synthesizing means 40 biological parameter comparing and displaying means 11a ultrasonic probe 11b ultrasonic transmitting and receiving unit 21a motion state parameter calculating unit 21b tissue property parameter calculating unit 31 memory 32 arithmetic unit 41 Memory 42 Display method designation unit 43 Display unit 44 Alarm generation unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A biological signal detecting means for detecting a biological signal of an organ moving with a heartbeat such as a heart, a biological parameter calculating means for calculating a biological parameter from the detected signals, and the calculated variable is easily evaluated. A biological measuring device comprising: biological parameter synthesizing means for synthesizing an expression; and biological parameter comparing and displaying means for comparing and displaying a biological parameter to an expression that is easy to evaluate. 2. The biological measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said biological signal detecting means comprises ultrasonic transmitting / receiving means for emitting an ultrasonic pulse toward the heart and obtaining an echo. 3. The living body measurement apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the living body parameter calculating means comprises a movement state parameter calculating section for calculating movement state parameters such as wall excursions, wall contraction speeds, wall thickness changes, etc. from the ultrasonic consultation wave. . 4. A tissue property parameter for calculating a tissue property parameter reflecting tissue properties related to viscoelasticity of tissue based on signal components such as an echo spectrum, an amplitude and a phase from an ultrasonic examination wave. The living body measuring device according to claim 1, comprising a calculating unit. 5. A function of the biological parameter synthesizing means for calculating each variable as a relative change with respect to a resting state, and a function of calculating a difference, a quotient, a product and a sum of two variables which can be selected for evaluating each variable in association with each other. 2. The biological measurement device according to claim 1, wherein the biological measurement device has a function of calculating one or more of them. 6. The biological parameter comparing and displaying means displays the original variable calculated by the biological parameter calculating means or two or more variables selected from the new variables calculated by the biological parameter synthesizing means so as to be compared. Item 4. The biological measurement device according to Item 1. 7. The biological parameter comparison and display means displays numerical values, two-dimensional display of XY coordinates, a time-dependent change waveform with respect to a time axis, or a combination thereof to display in parallel or overlap. The biological measuring device according to item 1. 8. The biological measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the biological parameter comparing and displaying means generates an alarm when the amount of the specified biological parameter exceeds a threshold.