JPH11313823A - Ultrasonic image device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically focus on an ROI part to be really examined by monitoring motion and flow signals in ultrasonic beams, and adaptively adjusting a phase to an input signal appearing in the depth. SOLUTION: An ultrasonic image device is provided with a depth area setting element 28 for setting the threshold value of a detection level on a Doppler signal in an ultrasonic circuit part 2; a means for extracting time and a signal level of the Doppler signal exceeding the set detection level; and an ROI depth data generating part 29 for determining an ROI depth range for correcting to uniform the phase of echo signals between close channels to an adaptive phase control part 3 using the extracted time and signal level. A focus follows an ROI part in a testee by correcting the phase in such a way that echo signals from an area where the intensity of the Doppler signal reaches the detection level, or its vicinity are in the same phase between close oscillator elements.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic imaging apparatus for transmitting an ultrasonic wave to a diagnostic site in a subject, receiving a reflected echo, and obtaining and displaying an ultrasonic tomographic image and a Doppler image of the diagnostic site. In particular, by monitoring the motion and flow signals in the ultrasonic beam and adaptively adjusting the phase to the received signal appearing at the depth, the dynamic reflector portion (ROI portion) to be truly inspected can be adjusted. The present invention relates to an adaptive image reproduction type ultrasonic imaging apparatus which can automatically adjust the focus and can display an adaptive image only for the moving reflector portion in almost real time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional adaptive image reproducing ultrasonic imaging apparatus aims at adjusting the phase of a transmission / reception signal of an array of fine ultrasonic transducer elements to a high-intensity reflected echo signal from a living body. An ultrasonic beam is formed and scanned by electronically controlling the circuit characteristics so that the phases of the reflected echo signal waveforms received by adjacent transducer elements coincide with each other. Distribution,
The flow velocity of the body fluid, the distribution of the movement of the organ, or the time change thereof are visualized. Such a conventional adaptive image reproduction type ultrasonic imaging apparatus, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, includes a probe 1, an ultrasonic circuit unit 2, an adaptive phase control unit 3, and a digital scan converter unit (hereinafter, referred to as a digital scan converter unit). A "DSC unit" 4, an image display unit 5, and a beam / focus deflection phase data memory 6.

In FIG. 7, an array-type probe 1 in which N fine transducer elements are arranged is included in a natural number N generated by a transmission circuit 7 in an ultrasonic circuit section 2. m
A transmission pulse of a burst waveform in which the amplitude and phase of the channel is controlled is input, and each transducer element selected by the probe switching scanning unit 9 converts the ultrasonic wave into an ultrasonic wave and launches the ultrasonic wave into the subject. The probe 1 receives the echo signal reflected back from the diagnostic site in the subject, and the probe 1 converts the echo signal back into an electric signal by each of the transducer elements. And a transmission / reception separation circuit 8 to output the reception signal to the reception circuit 10 as a reception signal.

At this time, the probe switching scanning section 9
While selecting the m transducer elements from the transducer elements to form the aperture of the ultrasonic transmission / reception beam, it performs translation scanning such as linear scanning and convex scanning. The transmission / reception separation circuit 8 efficiently transmits the transmission signal power output from the transmission circuit 7 to the probe 1 via the probe switching scanning unit 9 and flows into the reception circuit 10. protect the by blocking at the input of the receiving wave circuit 10 preamplifier 13 ₁ ~13m (see FIG. 8), is input via the probe switch scanning unit 9 is received and by the probe 1 The reflected echo signal is received by the wave receiving circuit 1
It serves to efficiently transfer the 0 of the preamplifier 13 ₁ ~13m.

The internal circuit of the wave receiving circuit 10 is configured as shown in FIG. 8, the preamplifier 13 ₁ ～13M, said probe each of the reflected echo signal m received channel and amplified controlled for each depth at probe 1, their level of the echo signal A / D converter 14 _{1 ~14m}
To the input range of This A / D converter 14 _1-
It said echo signal digitally converted by 14m, the phase compensation unit 15 ₁ to align the phases between the received signals of different channels for each transducer element according to the distance to the focal point
The phase of each channel is adjusted by the depth of 15 m and the phases are adjusted for each depth, and the adder 16 synthesizes the waveform of the ultrasonic beam focused on the diagnosis site. Here, as the phase compensation unit 15 ₁ ~15m, can either utilize what is implemented as a time delay circuit can be realized by changing the address of the read or write is stored in the memory. Then, the degree of phase compensation by the phase compensator 15 ₁ ~15m is controlled using the beam focusing deflecting the phase data from the beam focus deflection phase data memory 6 shown in FIG.

The waveform of the ultrasonic beam synthesized by the adder 16 is shown in FIG.
The detection and logarithmic compression are performed by the AM detection and video signal processing unit 11 shown in FIG. 1 and output as a tomographic image signal of the diagnosis site. The distribution of the sideband component of the fundamental wave is calculated by the FM detection and Doppler signal processing unit 12. Is filtered out, and the Doppler signal is detected and output. Both the tomographic image signal output from the AM detection and video signal processing unit 11 and the Doppler signal output from the FM detection and Doppler signal processing unit 12 are input to the DSC unit 4 shown in FIG. The image is converted into an image such as an ultrasonic tomographic image and a Doppler image, and then displayed on the image display unit 5. At this time,
The control circuit 21 in the DSC unit 4 controls the entire ultrasonic circuit unit 2 to operate in a coordinated manner according to the operation of the DSC unit 4.

[0007] At this time, in order to adaptively compensate the channel between the phase error due to sound speed non-uniformity of the living tissue in the subject, as shown in FIG. 8, the phase compensation section 15 of each channel reception circuit 10 ₁ comprising a correlator 17 ₁ ~17m to correlation processing between signals from ～15M, sends a correlation signal from the correlation unit 17 ₁ ~17m to the adaptive phase control unit 3, the interior of the phase correction value calculation unit 18 and the phase thereof The compensation data generator 19 monitors the phase difference between adjacent channels, and
By correcting the focus deflection phase data, it has been controlling the phase compensation unit 15 ₁ ~15m.

[0008]

However, in such a conventional adaptive image reproducing type ultrasonic imaging apparatus, an ultrasonic image to be displayed is generally handled, and which image is to be distinguished. Instead, adaptive image reproduction was performed by correcting the phase data. In this case, in the ultrasound image, the intensity of the reflected echo signal of the diagnosis site is generally moderate or rather low in many cases, and therefore, a portion that the examiner wants to see, particularly a moving region of interest (ROI) ( (The dynamic reflector). Therefore, the ROI portion where the movement or the flow of the diagnosis site is in focus is not focused, and the image may be blurred, and a good diagnosis image may not be obtained.

In view of the above, the present invention addresses such a problem and monitors the signal of the movement or flow in the ultrasonic beam and adjusts the phase adaptively to the received signal appearing at that depth. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic imaging apparatus capable of automatically focusing on a portion of a ROI (dynamic reflector portion) to be truly inspected. It is another object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic imaging apparatus capable of displaying an adaptive image for only the above-mentioned moving reflector portion in almost real time.

[0010]

To achieve the above object, an ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a means for transmitting an ultrasonic beam in a predetermined direction having a moving organ or blood flow in a subject; A means for receiving a reflected echo signal including the Doppler effect due to the moving organ or blood flow, and a means for detecting a region where the moving organ or blood flow is present from the received reflected echo signal; In an ultrasonic imaging apparatus that visualizes an uneven distribution of acoustic characteristics due to living tissue in the body, a moving organ or a blood flow, etc. as an ultrasonic image, an area for detecting the presence of the moving organ or the blood flow in the subject Adaptive image reconstruction that compensates for the non-uniformity of the acoustic characteristics of the biological tissue in the subject using reflected echo signals from For Seeking extension data, subjected to ultrasonic reception using the determined delay data, in which to perform the adaptive image processing.

Further, the delay data for adaptive image reproduction is obtained on a certain ultrasonic beam, and the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic wave in the same beam direction is performed immediately after the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic beam using the obtained delay data. You may do so.

Further, the delay data for reproducing the adaptive image is obtained on a certain ultrasonic beam, and the ultrasonic wave is transmitted and received in a beam direction adjacent to the ultrasonic beam using the obtained delay data. Is also good.

Further, the delay data for reproducing the adaptive image is obtained for all the ultrasonic beams in a certain frame, and the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic waves in all beam directions are performed in the next frame using the obtained delay data. It may be.

Further, the delay data for reproducing the adaptive image is obtained for all the ultrasonic beams in a certain frame, the obtained delay data of all the ultrasonic beams is stored, and the stored delay data is used. Ultrasonic transmission / reception in the beam direction may be performed for each ultrasonic beam.

[0015] Further, the ultrasonic imaging apparatus as the related invention described above is a probe having a plurality of transducer elements arranged and transmitting / receiving ultrasonic waves to / from a subject, and a pulse transmitted to the probe. To generate an ultrasonic beam, align and add the phases of the reflected echo signals received by the probe, further process this phasing signal and output it as a tomographic image signal. An ultrasonic circuit unit that filters out the fundamental wave and detects and outputs a Doppler signal, and a phase control unit that corrects the reflected echo signals in the ultrasonic circuit unit so that the phases of echo signals between adjacent channels are aligned. A digital scan converter unit for writing and reading the reflected echo signal from the ultrasonic circuit unit to the storage unit and performing scan conversion by reading the echo data from the ultrasonic circuit unit; Means for setting a threshold of a detection level for a Doppler signal in the ultrasonic circuit section, and a time and a signal at which the Doppler signal exceeds the set detection level. Means for extracting a level, and using the extracted time and signal level, an ROI for correcting the phase control unit so that the phases of echo signals between adjacent channels are aligned.
Means for determining the depth range of the object, and correcting the phase so that the echo signal from the region or the vicinity where the intensity of the Doppler signal has reached the detection level is in phase between adjacent transducer elements. Thus, the focus follows the ROI portion in the subject.

Further, there is provided means for taking in a signal from the means for determining the depth range of the ROI and generating a signal for displaying a marker at a position corresponding to the depth range on the image display unit, so that the object whose focus follows A marker is displayed on the ROI part in the center.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of the operation when the ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to the above means is applied to a convex scanning format. In FIG. 1, it is assumed that an outline 37 of an organ is present in the range of the frame of the convex scanning area 36, and a blood vessel 38 is present therein. And at one moment,
It is assumed that an ultrasonic beam 39 is passing through the contour 37 of the organ and the blood vessel 38. At the next moment, assuming that the contour 37 and the blood vessel 38 of the organ have moved as indicated by reference numerals 37 'and 38', respectively, a Doppler shift signal generated by the movement is detected, and a nearby structure (the above-described structure) is detected. Adaptive focusing processing (adaptive image processing) is performed on a reflected echo signal from an organ wall or a blood vessel wall. This is a feature of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of the operation when the ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to each of the above means is applied to a linear scanning format. In FIG. 2, it is assumed that the front wall 42 of the blood vessel 41 is located within the range of the frame of the linear scanning area 40, and the blood flow 43 is flowing inside the front wall 42. Then, it is assumed that the ultrasonic beam 44 passes through the front wall 42 and the blood flow 43 of the blood vessel 41. In this state, a Doppler shift signal generated by the blood flow 43 is detected, and adaptive focusing processing (adaptive image processing) is performed on a reflected echo signal from a nearby structure (the blood vessel wall). This is a feature of the present invention.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to the present invention. This ultrasonic imaging apparatus transmits an ultrasonic wave to a diagnostic site in a subject, receives a reflected echo, and obtains and displays an ultrasonic tomographic image and a Doppler image of the diagnostic site. A probe 1 as shown in FIG.
Ultrasonic circuit unit 2, adaptive phase control unit 3, DSC unit 4
, An image display unit 5, a beam focus deflection phase data memory 6, a depth area setting unit 28,
ROI depth data generator 29 and ROI marker generator 3
0.

The probe 1 has a plurality of transducer elements arranged in an array and transmits and receives ultrasonic waves to and from a subject. The ultrasonic circuit unit 2 supplies a transmission pulse to the probe 1 to generate an ultrasonic beam, aligns and adds the phases of the reflected echo signals received by the probe 1, and further adds the phasing. The signal is processed and output as a tomographic image signal, and the fundamental wave is filtered out from the phasing signal to detect and output a Doppler signal. 8, a probe switching scanning unit 9, a receiving circuit 10, an AM detection / video signal processing unit 11, an FM
A detection / Doppler signal processing unit 12.

The internal circuit of the wave receiving circuit 10 is as follows:
As shown in FIG. ₁~ 13m, A / D
Converter 14₁~ 14m, phase compensator 15₁~ 15m
The arithmetic unit 16 and the correlation unit 17₁１７17 m.

The AM detection / video signal processing unit 1
As shown in FIG. 5, the internal circuit 1 includes a dynamic band-pass filter (dynamic BPF) 45, an absolute value circuit 46, an amplitude LOG conversion circuit 47, and a maximum search circuit 48 for searching for the peak of the instantaneous value of the amplitude. And a depth area calculation setting unit 49 for specifying a depth range in which to search for the peak. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the internal circuit of the FM detection / Doppler signal processing unit 12 includes two multiplication circuits 22a and 22b, a reference frequency generation unit 23,
90 ° phase shifter 24 and two high-pass filters (HP
F) 25a, 25b and low-pass filter (LPF) 2
6a, 26b, a reflection intensity calculation circuit 27, and a maximum search circuit 31 for searching for the peak of the instantaneous value of the amplitude in the depth range set by the depth area setting device 28 such as a color box setting unit.
It is composed of

The adaptive phase control unit 3 includes the ultrasonic circuit unit 2
This is for correcting the reflected echo signals in the sub-channels so that the phases of the echo signals between adjacent channels are aligned, and as shown in FIG. 4, comprises a phase correction value calculation unit 18 and a phase compensation data generation unit 19. The adaptive phase control section 3 is connected to a beam / focus / deflection phase data memory 6.

The DSC unit 4 includes the ultrasonic circuit unit 2
Is written into an internal storage unit in synchronization with the ultrasonic transmission / reception cycle and read out (scan conversion) in synchronization with the horizontal scanning of the monitor of the image display unit 5. The input signal is an ultrasonic tomographic image. A scan converter 20 for converting the image into an image such as a Doppler image, and a control circuit 21 for controlling the entire ultrasonic circuit unit 2 to operate in a coordinated manner in accordance with the operation of the DSC unit 4. Further, the image display unit 5
Displays the image data from the DSC unit 4 as an ultrasonic image, and is composed of, for example, a television monitor.

Here, in the present invention, a depth region setting unit 28 and an ROI depth data generation unit 29 are connected to the ultrasonic circuit unit 2, and the ROI depth data generation unit 29 is further provided with a ROI marker. The generator 30 is connected to send a signal to the scan converter 20. The depth region setting unit 28 is provided with the ultrasonic circuit unit 2.
It is a means for setting a detection level threshold value for the Doppler signal in the above, and sets a level for detecting a Doppler signal component having a predetermined intensity and speed or higher.

The threshold value set by the depth region setting unit 28 is sent to the local maximum search circuit 31 added in the present invention in the FM detection and Doppler signal processing unit 12 shown in FIG. The local maximum search circuit 31 serves as a means for extracting the sub-maximum value of the time and signal level at which the Doppler signal exceeds the detection level set by the depth area setting unit 28, and the sub-maximum value of the extracted time and signal level. The maximum value is sent to the AM detection / video signal processing unit 11, where the depth (maximum depth) and its value near the maximum amplitude in the vicinity are searched again by the same mechanism, and sent to the ROI depth data generation unit 29. It has become so.

The ROI depth data generating section 29 is provided with the local maximum search circuit 4 of the AM detection / video signal processing section 11.
8 is a means for determining the depth range of the ROI to be corrected by the adaptive phase control unit 3 so that the phases of the echo signals between adjacent channels are aligned using the maximum values of the time and the signal level extracted in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, ROI depth data is sent to the phase correction value calculation section 18 in the adaptive phase control section 3.

Further, the ROI marker generation unit 30 takes in the output signal from the ROI depth data generation unit 29 and outputs a signal for displaying a marker at a position corresponding to the depth range of the ROI portion in the subject on the image display unit 5. The scan converter 20 in the DSC unit 4
To send a signal to the device.

Next, the operation of the thus configured ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to the present invention will be described. First, the entire operation of the probe 1, the ultrasonic circuit unit 2, and the DSC unit 4 shown in FIG. 3 operates in the same manner as in the related art described with reference to FIGS. In this state, the ultrasonic circuit 2
As shown in FIG. 5, the FM detection and Doppler signal processing section 12 receives the reflected echo signal from the reception circuit 10, and the other multiplication circuit 22b outputs the sine wave from the reference frequency generation section 23 and the reflection signal. The product is multiplied by the echo signal, and one of the multiplication circuits 22a uses the 90 ° phase shifter 24 to move the product 90 ° from the reference frequency.
The product of the phase-shifted cosine wave and the above-mentioned reflected echo signal is calculated, and the two systems of HPFs 25a and 25b and LPF 26
After the processings a and 26b, the reflection intensity calculation circuit 27 calculates the square root of the sum of the squares, and outputs the calculation result. That is, it outputs the instantaneous absolute value of the envelope of the reflected echo signal to the DSC unit 4 which performs scan conversion or image processing.

The FM detection and Doppler signal processing unit 1
2 is generally used for detecting a temporal change of the flow velocity in a limited portion of the ultrasonic beam, and detecting and displaying a two-dimensional distribution of the flow velocity by scanning the ultrasonic beam. A Doppler signal extraction filter may be used.

Of the Doppler signal components detected by the FM detection and Doppler signal processing unit 12, those Doppler signal components whose intensity and speed are equal to or higher than those set by the depth region setting unit 28 are extracted by a local maximum search circuit 31 shown in FIG. Then, the extracted sub-maximum values of the time and the signal level are sent to the AM detection / video signal processing unit 11, and the depth (maximum depth) where the amplitude near the maximum value and the maximum value are again searched by the same mechanism. Then, it is sent to ROI depth data generation section 29. ROI
The depth data generation unit 29 uses the extracted time and the maximum value of the signal level as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG.
RO for correcting the phase of the echo signal between adjacent channels to the phase correction value calculation unit 18 in the adaptive phase control unit 3
Send I-depth data. As a result, the depth at which the phase is controlled by the adaptive phase control unit 3 is specified to a portion where the motion or the flow where the Doppler signal component is detected is present.

Next, the adaptive phase control unit 3 shown in FIG. 4 calculates the phase correction value of the peak time difference of the correlation of the echo signal near the time according to the ROI depth data from the ROI depth data generation unit 29 by the phase correction value calculation unit 18. And sends it to the phase compensation data generator 19. Then, the phase compensation data generation unit 19 corrects the beam focusing deflecting phase data to be input from the beam focus deflection phase data memory 6 sends to the phase compensator 15 ₁ ～15M, the phase compensator 15 ₁ Control ~ 15m.

The correction of the ROI portion in the subject is performed by using the R
This can be realized by obtaining a phase compensation value for each scanning line in the OI and correcting the beam focus deflection phase data for the beam in the ROI. Alternatively, it is possible to correct the beam focus deflection phase data for all the beams in the ROI with the phase compensation values detected in one scanning line in the ROI. As a result, the focal point can follow the ROI portion in the subject, and the ultrasonic beam can be efficiently focused on a part necessary for diagnosis. After obtaining beam focus deflection phase data for phase compensation in the ROI of the above-mentioned ultrasonic scanning line, transmission and reception of ultrasonic waves are performed again on the same ultrasonic scanning line. And
At this time, the beam focus data for transmitting and receiving the ultrasonic waves is data based on the corrected beam focus deflection phase data. As a result, although there is a very small time difference between the transmission and reception for obtaining the correction value of the beam focus deflection phase data and the transmission and reception immediately thereafter, almost in real time, only the dynamic reflector portion is accurate. A focused echo signal can be obtained.

In the present invention, transmission / reception for obtaining the beam focus deflection phase data for the phase compensation,
Immediately thereafter, transmission and reception for video acquisition using the corrected beam / focus deflection phase data in the same transmission and reception direction are performed as a set, and the inside of the subject is changed while sequentially changing the transmission and reception direction of the combination of the transmission and reception. The ultrasonic scanning is performed. As a result, an almost real-time adaptive image only for the moving reflector portion can be displayed on the television monitor of the image display unit 5.

On the other hand, the ROI marker generator 30
The output signal from the OI depth data generation unit 29 is taken in,
A signal for displaying a marker at a position corresponding to the depth range of the ROI portion in the subject on the image display unit 5 is generated, and the DSC
The signal is sent to the scan converter 20 in the unit 4. Then, an image of a marker display is created in the scan conversion of the scan converter 20 and, as shown in FIG.
The marker 32 is displayed. With the ROI marker 32, the examiner can easily confirm the ROI portion in the subject on the display image of the image display unit 5. When it is not necessary to display the ROI marker 32, R
The OI marker generator 30 does not necessarily have to be provided.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the wave receiving circuit 10 in the ultrasonic circuit section 2. In FIG. In this embodiment, the range according to the transmission / reception directional angle of the transducer element of the probe 1 and the inspection depth is used instead of the adder 16 for synthesizing the waveform of one ultrasonic beam focused on the diagnosis site in FIG. Is provided with a full beam memory 33 for generating a plurality of ultrasonic beams. Furthermore, the provided adding section 34 ₁ ~34m downstream of the phase compensator 15 ₁ ~15m, correlation section 17 ₁ ~17n of a subsequent stage
Is a half of that in FIG. 4, and a phase compensation / quadrature modulation data generator 19 'is used in place of the phase compensation data generator 19 in the adaptive phase controller 3 shown in FIG.

In the case of FIG. 6, the phase compensators 15 _{1 to} 15 m
Thereafter, all beams are stored in an all-beam memory 33 as two orthogonal components using two processing systems including orthogonal modulation, and the AM detection / video signal processing unit 11 and the FM detection / Doppler signal processing unit 12 are processed as a plurality of beam data. Through the scan converter 20 in the DSC unit 4 shown in FIG.
By allowing the scan converter 20 to perform parallel arithmetic processing, an extreme image resolution can be obtained. Further, by performing the correlation processing by the correlator 17 ₁ ~17n after the addition processing by the adder unit 34 ₁ ~34m, becomes correlation of the average of adjacent two channels, it is possible to enhance the resistance to noise.

In the above description, the adaptive phase control unit 3
Is a method of detecting the phase difference of the received signal between adjacent elements by correlation processing, but the present invention is not limited to this, and other phase correction value detection methods may be used. In FIG. 3, the adaptive phase control unit 3
Has been transmitted to the receiving circuit 10 in the ultrasonic circuit unit 2, but the signal line connected from the adaptive phase control unit 3 to the transmitting circuit 7 in the ultrasonic circuit unit 2 35 may be provided, and a signal of the phase correction value may be transmitted to the transmission circuit 7 and controlled by the transmission unit.

[0039]

The present invention has been configured as described above.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the non-uniformity of the acoustic characteristics of the living tissue in the subject is compensated for by using the reflected echo signal from the moving organ or the region for detecting the presence of blood flow in the subject. Obtain the delay data for adaptive image reproduction to match the phase of the ultrasonic wave in the above-mentioned detection region in the adjacent transducer on the acoustic probe,
By using the obtained delay data to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves and perform adaptive image processing, it monitors signals of movement and flow in the ultrasonic beam and adapts to received signals that appear at that depth. By automatically adjusting the phase, it is possible to automatically focus on the dynamic reflector portion (the ROI portion) to be truly inspected.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the delay data for reproducing the adaptive image is obtained on a certain ultrasonic beam, and the same delay data is used immediately after the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic beam using the obtained delay data. Since the ultrasound transmission / reception in the beam direction is performed, since the acoustic characteristics of the living tissue are non-uniform from the body surface of the subject to the diagnostic site in the body, a portion of the ROI to be truly inspected (dynamic Even when the wavefront of the reflected echo signal from the reflector portion is disturbed, it is possible to automatically focus on a part where there is movement or flow, and to focus on that part efficiently and quickly.

Further, according to the invention of claim 3, the delay data for reproducing the adaptive image is obtained on a certain ultrasonic beam,
By performing ultrasonic transmission / reception in the beam direction adjacent to the ultrasonic beam using the obtained delay data, the frame rate is reduced to half in the invention of claim 2, but the frame rate is not reduced. The adaptive image processing can be performed with the same frame rate. Accordingly, an adaptive image of a moving organ or blood flow can be displayed almost in real time by two-dimensionally scanning the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic beam in the adjacent ultrasonic scanning direction.

Further, according to the invention of claim 4, the delay data for adaptive image reproduction is obtained for all the ultrasonic beams in a certain frame, and in the next frame, the entire beam is obtained by using the obtained delay data. By performing transmission and reception of ultrasonic waves in the direction, adaptive image processing can be performed for each frame.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the delay data for reproducing the adaptive image is obtained for all the ultrasonic beams in a certain frame, and the obtained delay data of all the ultrasonic beams is stored. By using the stored delay data to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves in the beam direction for each ultrasonic beam, adaptive image processing can be performed for each ultrasonic beam for that beam, and accuracy Can be raised.

Further, according to the invention of claim 6, means for setting a threshold of the detection level for the Doppler signal in the ultrasonic circuit section, and the time and the signal level at which the Doppler signal exceeds the set detection level are extracted. Means for determining the depth range of the ROI for correcting the echo signals between adjacent channels so that the phases of the echo signals are aligned with each other using the extracted time and signal level. Is corrected so that the echo signal from the region or the vicinity where the detection level has reached the above detection level becomes the same phase between the vibrator elements adjacent to each other.
(The dynamic reflector portion). Therefore, by automatically monitoring the movement and flow signals in the ultrasonic beam and adaptively adjusting the phase of the received signal appearing at that depth, the ROI to be truly inspected is automatically focused. Can be. From this, a focus is placed on the ROI portion where the movement or flow of the diagnosis site occurs, and a good diagnosis image can be obtained.

Further, according to the invention of claim 7, a signal from the means for determining the depth range of the ROI is taken in, and a signal for displaying a marker at a position corresponding to the depth range on the image display unit is generated. By providing the means,
A marker can be displayed at the ROI portion (dynamic reflector portion) in the subject whose focus follows. Therefore,
The examiner can easily confirm the ROI portion in the subject on the display image on the image display unit.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of an operation when an ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a convex scanning format.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of an operation when the ultrasonic imaging apparatus is applied to a linear scanning format.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the ultrasonic imaging apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a wave receiving circuit in the ultrasonic circuit unit.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of an AM detection / video signal processing unit and an FM detection / Doppler signal processing unit in the ultrasonic circuit unit.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the wave receiving circuit in the ultrasonic circuit unit.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a conventional ultrasonic imaging apparatus.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a receiving circuit in an ultrasonic circuit unit in a conventional ultrasonic imaging apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Probe 2 ... Ultrasonic circuit part 3 ... Adaptive phase control part 4 ... DSC part 5 ... Image display part 6 ... Phase data memory for beam focus deflection 7 ... Wave transmission circuit 8 ... Transmission / reception separation circuit 9 ... Probe Sub-switching scanning unit 10 receiving circuit 11 AM detection / video signal processing unit 12 FM detection / Doppler signal processing unit 20 scan converter 21 control circuit 28 depth area setting unit 29 ROI depth data generation unit 30 ROI marker generators 31, 48 ... Maximum search circuit 32 ... ROI marker 36 ... Convex scanning area 37 ... Contour of organ 38,41 ... Vessel 39,44 ... Ultrasonic beam 40 ... Linear scanning area 42 ... Front wall of blood vessel 43 ... Blood flow 49: Depth area calculation setting section

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A means for transmitting an ultrasonic beam in a predetermined direction having a moving organ or blood flow in a subject, and a means for receiving a reflected echo signal including a Doppler effect due to the moving organ or blood flow. Means for detecting a region in which the moving organ or blood flow is present from the received reflected echo signal, and wherein a non-uniform distribution of acoustic characteristics due to living tissue in the subject or a moving organ or blood flow is detected. In an ultrasonic imaging apparatus for imaging as an acoustic image, non-uniformity of acoustic characteristics of a living tissue in a subject is determined by using a reflected echo signal from a moving organ or a region for detecting the presence of blood flow in the subject. Compensated to determine the delay data for adaptive image reproduction to match the phase of the ultrasonic wave in the above detection area in the adjacent transducer on the ultrasonic probe, and perform ultrasonic transmission and reception using the obtained delay data, Adaptive image An ultrasonic imaging apparatus characterized in that processing is performed. 2. The delay data for reproducing the adaptive image is obtained on a certain ultrasonic beam, and the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic wave in the same beam direction is performed immediately after the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic beam using the obtained delay data. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein:
The ultrasound imaging device as described in the above. 3. The delay data for adaptive image reproduction is obtained on a certain ultrasonic beam, and ultrasonic waves are transmitted and received in a beam direction adjacent to the ultrasonic beam using the obtained delay data. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein delay data for adaptive image reproduction is obtained for all ultrasonic beams in a certain frame, and ultrasonic waves are transmitted and received in all beam directions using the obtained delay data in the next frame. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein
The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1. 5. The delay data for reproducing the adaptive image is obtained for all the ultrasonic beams in a certain frame, the obtained delay data of all the ultrasonic beams is stored, and the stored delay data is used. 2. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein ultrasonic transmission / reception in the beam direction is performed for each ultrasonic beam. 6. A probe having an array of a plurality of transducer elements for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a subject, supplying a transmission pulse to the probe to generate an ultrasonic beam, and Align the reflected echo signals received by the probe and add them together.
Further processing this phasing signal and outputting it as a tomographic image signal,
Also, an ultrasonic circuit unit that filters out the fundamental wave from the phasing signal to detect and output a Doppler signal, and corrects a reflected echo signal in the ultrasonic circuit unit so that the phases of echo signals between adjacent channels are aligned. A phase control unit, a digital scan converter unit that writes and reads a reflected echo signal from the ultrasonic circuit unit to the storage unit, and reads and performs scan conversion, and an image that displays image data from the digital scan converter unit as an ultrasonic image. In an ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising a display unit, means for setting a detection level threshold value for a Doppler signal in the ultrasonic circuit unit, and extracting a time and a signal level at which the Doppler signal exceeds the set detection level Means and an echo between adjacent channels to the phase control unit using the extracted time and signal level. RO to be corrected so as to issue of the phase are aligned
Means for determining a depth range of I, and corrects the phase so that echo signals from a region where the intensity of the Doppler signal has reached the detection level or from the vicinity are in phase between adjacent transducer elements. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus characterized in that the focus follows the ROI portion in the subject. 7. An object which receives a signal from the means for determining the depth range of the ROI and generates a signal for displaying a marker at a position corresponding to the depth range on the image display unit, and the focus of the subject follows. 7. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a marker is displayed at an ROI portion inside.