JPS5937940A - Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention transmits ultrasonic waves to a subject from an ultrasonic probe consisting of a plurality of ultrasonic transducing elements, receives the reflected waves, obtains an echo signal, and obtains an echo signal. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that can obtain a cross-sectional image of a subject based on echo signals obtained.

Conventionally, among a plurality of (n) ultrasonic transducer elements, adjacent m (m<n) elements are energized one by one by IJ = Amino scanning ultrasound. Diagnostic □ equipment is well known, but when the aperture of the probe is enlarged with the expectation of a wide field of view in this type of equipment, the number of scanning lines will inevitably increase if the scanning line density is not reduced. However, if the frame rate is not lowered, the real-time performance is impaired, and on the other hand, if the frame rate is not lowered, the scanning line density is lowered and the resolution is lowered, which are contradictory problems.

In addition, it is a so-called sector electronic scanning type in which a linear array of ultrasonic probes is phase-driven to deflect an ultrasonic beam in a fan shape. A similar problem exists in a sector electronic scanning ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that combines signals to obtain a single image. In other words, when aiming at a wide field of view, the number of scanning lines increases, which inevitably lowers the frame rate and impairs real-time performance.On the other hand, if real-time performance is respected, the scanning line density decreases or the optic renal angle decreases. Otherwise, there was a problem that the depth of examination would have to be shortened.

In any case, it has been difficult to simultaneously satisfy a wide field of view, high scanning line density, and high frame rate.

The present invention was made in view of these points, and its purpose is to use a probe capable of wide field of view with 6 probes, and scan only local areas of interest at a high frame rate and at a high rate as necessary. An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic device capable of performing observation at linear density.

The present invention will be described in detail below using the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, taking a linear electronic scanning type as an example. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes an ultrasonic probe formed by linearly arranging a plurality of ultrasonic transducing elements, and a water bag 2
The ultrasonic wave is transmitted to the subject 1 via the ultrasonic wave and the reflected wave is received. Reference numeral 20 denotes a multiplexer, which is configured to be able to sequentially select m conversion elements for linear scanning, and at the same time to be able to locally limit the linear scanning range. With a 30-digit delay circuit,
It obtains the time delay necessary to focus the ultrasonic beam transmitted and received by the probe 10 and/or to obliquely deflect the beam direction. It is designed to change as appropriate based on the control of the control circuit 80. 40 is a burner that generates a pulse signal for exciting the ultrasonic transducer element. 50 is a processing circuit that receives the echo signal obtained through the multiplexer 20 and the delay circuit 30;
After performing appropriate signal processing such as logarithmic amplification, the signal is converted into a digital signal and output. This digital data is temporarily stored in memory 60. 70 is a cathode ray tube (CR
Data (cross-sectional image data of the subject 1) read out from the memory 60 by a display device having a display section consisting of a
can be displayed on a CRT screen. Reference numeral 80 denotes a control circuit that generates necessary signals to each section to control their operations. That is, for example, the multiplexer 20 is supplied with a signal for selecting m conversion elements in a predetermined scanning range, and the delay circuit 60 is supplied with a signal for selecting m conversion elements at a time, respectively, for m III conversion elements. , l delays, and output data of the processing circuit 50 is written into the memory 60, and the image of the determined scanning range is supplied to the m delay lines giving delay times of A signal for reading data is supplied, and a signal for displaying the data in a specified display format is supplied to the display device 70. Reference numeral 90 denotes a setting device that specifies the scanning range and the CRT display format of the scanning range, that is, setting the area below the scanning range to a uniform white level or black level, or setting the scanning range to 2. If more than one image is specified, it is now possible to specify a display format such as displaying those images in parallel on the same CRT. The scanning range is specified by moving a cursor on the CRT screen to indicate the scanning position and range, and the setting device is equipped with a cursor movement key and a position specification key for reading the cursor position. . Note that the method of specifying the scanning range is not limited to such a cursor method, and the scanning range and position may also be specified using the array order number of the ultrasonic transducer elements.

Commands instructing the data and display format set in this manner are guided to the control circuit 80.

In such a configuration, first, a case where scanning is performed over the entire width of the linear scannable range as shown in FIG. 2 will be described. In this case, the operation is the same as the conventional one, so a brief explanation will be given. That is, the pulses sent out from the pulser 40 are applied to a large number (m) of delay lines of the delay circuit 30, where they are appropriately time-delayed, and then sent to the m ultrasonic transducers selected by the multiplexer 20. Give and excite. The time delay in this case is that of a so-called electronic focuser that focuses the beam, and the focused beam is emitted perpendicularly from the probe 10 toward the subject 1 . The subsequent reflected wave is converted into an electrical signal by the probe 10, passes through the multiplexer 20, passes through the delay circuit 30 set to the same delay time as the time of transmission, and is appropriately processed in the processing circuit 50, and the signal is stored in the memory. 60. When the entire scanning width is scanned and the resulting echo signals are stored in the memo 1760, they are then transmitted in accordance with the display order of the display device 70 (display scan order), and the cross-sectional image of the subject 1 is displayed on the CRT screen. Ru. In this case, the scanning line density of the wave beam is extremely high, but because the scanning width is wide, the frame rate decreases, and real-time performance is considerably impaired.

If you want to obtain a tomographic image with high scanning line density while respecting real-time performance, the following operation is performed. Move the cursor on the 017 image by operating the setting device 90,
As shown in FIG. 3, regions I and ■ are designated as regions of interest. The control circuit 80 uses the multiplexer 80 to control the area!
Ultrasonic waves are scanned only on the parts marked with and ■. The obtained echo signal is taken into the memory 6θ in the same manner as described above. CR
The T display is performed based on an instruction from the setting device 90. That is, for example, only area l, only area ■, or area! .

It is possible to select and display items such as parallel and simultaneous display of fields. According to such an operation, the region of interest can be observed at a high frame rate and high scanning line density.

Note that the ultrasonic beam is not limited to linear scanning in which it is emitted directly above the probe, but can also be emitted in a diagonal direction KThJ from the probe 10 for linear scanning as shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. Good too. According to the oblique beam, the reflected wave R is the fourth
As shown in the figure, most of K is deflected laterally, so that the multiple reflected waves do not mix into the echo signal at all, so that the generation of false images can be suppressed. Further, even if the body surface is not parallel to the probe 10, the ultrasonic waves can be projected into the subject at an angle close to perpendicular to the plane, and high-quality images can be seen even on the side of the body. Furthermore, Sendai shape scanning, fan-shaped scanning, etc. can be used.

In addition to the case where one set of wide-field ultrasonic probes is used, two sets of sector scanning type ultrasonic probes 101. Even in an apparatus in which a tomographic image of the subject is obtained by scanning almost the same field of view by cooperating with +o2 and superimposing the images obtained in each scan on the RT, the Area of interest as shown in (b)!
Alternatively, it is possible to specify any part of the squirrel in any angular width and observe that area at high scanning line density and high frame rate.

As explained above, according to the present invention, while using an ultrasonic probe capable of a wide field of view, only the desired region of interest can be scanned with high scanning line density and high quality without reducing the frame rate. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that can obtain and observe images can be realized.

According to the present invention, first, the entire situation is observed in a wide field of view (at a slow frame rate), and then only the part to be observed in more detail can be captured without changing the probe or its position without sacrificing real-time performance. Since it can be observed with high resolution, it is extremely effective in practical use.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment 3 of the main part of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention.
A conceptual configuration diagram showing an example, and FIGS. 2 to 6 are explanatory diagrams showing a scanning range. 1... Subject, 10... Ultrasonic probe, 20...
Multiplexer, 30...Delay circuit, 40...
Pulsar, 50... Processing circuit, 60... Memory, 7
0... Display device, 80... Control circuit, 90... Setting device.

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment that can transmit and receive ultrasound waves to and from a subject using an ultrasound probe consisting of multiple ultrasound transducing elements, and obtain a cross-sectional image of the subject based on the obtained echo signals. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus characterized in that a desired range □ within an ultrasonic em scanable range is selected and ultrasonic waves can be transmitted and received. (2) The ultrasonic diagnostic device according to claim 1, wherein the position and width of the selectable desired range can be selected by a setting device. (3) The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2'm, characterized in that one location or a plurality of locations can be determined simultaneously as the desired range. (4) The ultrasonic probe is characterized by being composed of one set or a plurality of sets of probes arranged so that their ultrasonic beams scan in cooperation with each other aiming at the same target. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1.