JPS5991948A - 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 relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and particularly to a display device for the apparatus.

Generally, ultrasound diagnostic equipment applies ultrasound waves from an ultrasound transducer called a probe to the human body, and collects reflected waves from the human body using C.
This is intended to be displayed on the RT screen to diagnose the internal tissue structure of the human body.

In such ultrasonic diagnostic equipment, ultrasonic echo signals obtained by reflection from the human body are stored in a star image memory, and the echo signals read out from this image memory are converted into a video signal by a digital scan converter. It is converted into a signal and displayed as an ultrasound echo image on a CRT screen.

By the way, the interpretation of the echo image displayed on the CRT screen,
ID, e.g. patient number, for ease of interpretation.
Characters such as numbers, dates, and symbols c (hereinafter referred to as echo image interpretation aid images) are displayed on the CyLT simultaneously with the echo images.

Conventional devices for displaying such an auxiliary echo image interpretation image include those that display the echo image and its auxiliary interpretation image on separate CRTs, and those that display the auxiliary interpretation image in an image memory that stores the echo image. A memory for storing an auxiliary interpretation image is provided separately from a memory for storing an echo image, and the contents of each memory are displayed on the same CRT by reading them out by address control. There were items that were classified and displayed.

However, in the conventional apparatus described above, in which the echo image and its interpretation aid image are displayed on separate CRTs, it is troublesome to compare the two, and it is also difficult to display both on the same CRT. In the case where an echo image and an auxiliary interpretation image are displayed by address control using one image memory, when an attempt is made to display the auxiliary interpretation image on top of the echo image, the image data of the echo image in the memory disappears. Therefore, in order to avoid this, it is necessary to temporarily move the image data of the echo image to another location and then return it to the original location, which is a very complicated operation. Furthermore, if an image memory and an auxiliary reading image memory each having a different address are provided and both are displayed on the same CRT, the auxiliary reading image cannot be displayed superimposed on the echo image on the CRT.
It still requires the work of comparing images, and although this is better than displaying both on separate C:lLTs, it has the drawback that the work of comparing and handling is troublesome.

This invention was made in order to eliminate the drawbacks of the conventional ones as described above, and includes an image memory for storing ultrasonic echo images, and a 1-bit auxiliary interpretation image memory for storing an auxiliary interpretation image of the echo image. By displaying the contents of both memories on the same CRT, and at that time, for areas where the contents of both memories overlap on the CRT, the contents of both memories are added and displayed. When processing images, it is possible to store each image information of the ultrasonic echo image and the auxiliary interpretation image without destroying them, and also to store both of the above images in the same -C1
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that can be displayed superimposed on tT, and in which signal processing and echo image interpretation are extremely easy.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the main parts of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, (1) is an image memory that stores digitally converted values of ultrasonic echoes. If the gradation is 16 gradations, this image memory (
1) is a 4-bit memory.

(2) is a 1-bit reading aid image memo that stores reading aid images such as characters and symbols such as the ID number of the ultrasound echo image and the date of diagnosis! J, +31 is a controller that performs address control to read out the contents of the image memory (1) and the auxiliary reading image memory (2), and (4) is a display device that displays the ultrasonic echo image and the auxiliary reading image on the CRT. , (5) are controlled by the controller (3) and both the memos! J (
11, (This is a video signal synthesis circuit that adds the contents of 21 and generates a video signal.

Moreover, FIG. 2 shows a display image on a CRT, and in the figure,
A is an ultrasonic echo image, B is an auxiliary image for reading this ultrasonic echo image A, B1 is a display symbol indicating that the image on the CRT is an echo image, Bz is an ID number, and B3 is an This is an image with the date of diagnosis. Further, C is a display image on the display device (4) in which these are combined.

Next, the operation will be explained.

In this ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, the image memory (1) has a second
Digital data of an ultrasonic echo image A as shown in the figure is stored, and the digital data has brightness information of 4 bits and 16 levels as the brightness level when displayed on a CRT. On the other hand, the auxiliary reading image memory (2) stores digital data of a display symbol image BL, a 10 number image Bta, and a date image B3, and these digital data simply indicate brightness or darkness. This is 1-bit data. And these memories il+
, (2+ memory data is read out under address control by the controller (3), and the read output is input to the video signal synthesis circuit (51). In this video signal synthesis circuit (5), both the above-mentioned memo IJ fil, t2+
The readout output of the controller (3) is controlled by the controller (3), and the video signal is transmitted to the display device (4).
).

At that time, both of the above memos are displayed on the display device (4)! Jfl
), +21 data overlap area number,
The data of both the above memos Q II, (21) are added and output. That is, the brightness level of the digital data in the image memory (1) corresponding to the pixel at a certain address on the CRT is now one of the 4 bits and 16 levels. Level X (O≦X
≦15°) (=Q is the lowest brightness [black), x-15 is the highest brightness [white]), and the digital data in the reading auxiliary image memory (2) corresponding to the same address is 111 (
white) level, the above video signal synthesis circuit (
5) adds these two data and outputs it as a level of X+1, and as a result, the pixel at the above address on the CRT becomes X+.
Displayed at a brightness level of u.

However, when X is at the highest brightness, it is also displayed at the highest brightness on C1tT.

In this way, in this apparatus, the image information of the ultrasonic echo image A and the auxiliary interpretation image B, which are stored in separate memories as shown in FIG. C will be displayed.

According to this embodiment as described above, the display symbol B1. ID number B! 2 Diagnosis date B
Since the auxiliary interpretation image B, such as 3rd grade, can be displayed, the evaluation and observation of the echo image A becomes very easy. In addition, since the memory for the echo image and the memory for the auxiliary image are provided separately, the information on each image will not be destroyed even if both images are displayed superimposed on a CRT, and it may be possible to combine them. It is also possible to erase only either the echo image A or the auxiliary interpretation image B of the displayed image C, and even when it is desired to take only the echo image A and perform signal processing, this can be easily done.

Although the brightness level of the ultrasonic echo image changes slightly by adding both of the above data, this hardly affects the evaluation and observation of the echo image.

In the above embodiment, when displaying the auxiliary interpretation image, the data of the auxiliary interpretation image is added to the image data and displayed. However, in order to display the auxiliary interpretation image, the data of the auxiliary interpretation image is This may be displayed as a predetermined level of the above image data only when the value is 111 (white). Even in this case, the information of the echo image on the display screen is hardly impaired, and the same as in the above embodiment can be displayed. Effects can be obtained.

Furthermore, the address areas of the image memory and the auxiliary reading image memory may be the same or may be stationary.

As described above, according to the present invention, a memory for storing ultrasonic echo images and a memory for storing auxiliary interpretation images are provided separately, and the contents of both memories are displayed on the same CRT. For areas where the contents of both memories overlap, the contents of both memories are added and displayed, so each image information of both images can be stored without being destroyed, and both images can be displayed on the same CRT. This has the effect of greatly facilitating signal processing and interpretation of the echo image.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the main parts of an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. It is a diagram showing a display image. (1)...image memory, (2)...interpretation auxiliary image memory, (3)...controller, (4)...display device!
, f51... video signal synthesis circuit. Figure 1(b)

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An image memory that stores reflected ultrasound echoes from the human body as digital data, a 1-bit auxiliary interpretation image memory that stores digital data of an auxiliary interpretation image of the ultrasound echo image, and the image memory and the auxiliary interpretation image. A controller that reads each content of the memory by controlling the addresses; and a display device that displays the ultrasonic echo image and the auxiliary interpretation image on a CRT; A video signal is outputted to the display device as a signal, and when the content of the image memory and the content of the auxiliary image memory overlap on the display device, the contents of both memories are added to form a video signal. An ultrasonic diagnostic device comprising a signal synthesis circuit.