JPS6120301B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention emits ultrasonic waves from a vibrator to a living body,
The present invention relates to an image processing device for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that receives reflected waves from a living body, stores them in a storage device via an analog-to-digital converter, and displays them on an image display via a digital-to-analog converter.

Generally, in the image display of ultrasound diagnostic equipment,
The reflected waves of ultrasonic waves have directionality in the vertical and horizontal directions, and particularly have a characteristic that they spread significantly in the ultrasonic transducer scan direction. This spread is caused by various factors including the ultrasound diagnostic equipment and probe, but this may cause the displayed image to
The drawback was that it did not match the actual image of the subject.

The present invention aims to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of conventional devices and obtain a display image closer to the real image, without fixing the image processing circuit characteristics.
The present invention aims to provide an image processing device that is equipped with a circuit that allows parameters to be changed externally depending on the device, probe, or diagnostic purpose.

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

Figure 1 shows the level data of the digital signal obtained by analog-to-digital conversion of the reflected wave from the living body, and is displayed as an envelope in the transducer scan direction, where a is the level data obtained by the conventional device. This is an envelope, and b shows an example of the level data envelope when the spread in the transducer scan direction to be determined is compensated for. In the level data envelope a of the conventional device, the highest level data of a peak in the transducer scan direction in a certain range is Ao, and the highest level data of another peak is
If the current level data of interest is Am, then the following relationship can be defined between A'o and the level data A'm (waveform b) obtained by compensating for the spread in the transducer scan direction. can.

A′m=Am−(CnAo+C′nA′o) Here, Cn and C′n are compensation coefficients smaller than 1 that can be arbitrarily set manually.

A specific example for implementing this relationship will be described using FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention in which nine level data are obtained in the transducer scan direction. First, level data in the range direction for each transducer scan is sequentially stored in shift registers 1 to 8. When the storage is finished, the level data _a0 of the next transducer scan is transferred to the comparator circuit 9.
At the same time, level data is input from the shift register 1 to the comparison circuit 9. Further, the input of the comparator circuit 9 is connected in parallel with the data selection circuit 10, and the comparator circuit 9 compares the magnitude of the shift register 1 with the next resonator scan level data _a0 , and selects the shift register 1. If the level data are larger or equal, the level data _a0 of the next transducer scan of the shift register 1 is output as the output of the data selection circuit 10, and if the level data is smaller, the level data of the shift register 1 is output. A control signal such as that shown in FIG. In addition, the level data of shift registers 2 and 3 are sent to comparator circuit 1.
1 compares the level data, controls the data selection circuit 12, and outputs the larger level data of the shift registers 2 and 3. Below shift registers 5 and 6,
7 and 8 in the same manner, data selection circuit 1
Outputs the larger value of level data from 4 and 16.

The level data output from the data selection circuits 10 and 12 undergoes the same operation as described above in the comparator circuit 17, and the data selection circuit 18 outputs the higher level data. This output is from level data a ₀ input next to shift register 1.
This is the largest level data among the level data in the same range up to shift register 3.

Similarly, the output of the data selection circuit 20 is the highest level data among the level data from shift registers 5 to 8.

Next, the comparison circuits 21 and 23 compare the level data of the shift register 4 storing the level data of interest, and output the larger level data from the data selection circuits 22 and 24, respectively.

On the other hand, the outputs of the compensation coefficient setting circuits 32 to 39 consisting of the necessary number of digits that can be manually set are inputted to data selection circuits 40 to 43, respectively, and two sets of compensation coefficient data are inputted to the comparator circuits 9 and 11. ,13,15
Compensation coefficient data is selected by control signals a ₁ , a ₂ , a ₃ , and a ₄ and the output is sent to latch circuits 44 and 4.
5, respectively. The control signals for the latch circuits 44 and 45 are inputted with the control signals _a5 and _a6 for the comparator circuits 21 and 23, respectively. The control signals _a5 and _a6 are compared with the level data of the shift register 4,
If the level data of the shift register 4 is greater or equal, the compensation coefficient data of the latch circuit is cleared and the output is set to 0. The outputs of the latch circuits 44 and 45 are the data selection circuits 22 and 2.
Simultaneously with the output of 4, the output is input to the multiplier circuits 25 and 26, and the output thereof is input to the adder circuit 27, and the maximum value data of the four level data before and after in the transducer scan direction centering on the shift register 4 is input. Outputs the sum of products of and compensation coefficient data. This output is shifted and input to the adder 28 along with the output of the register 4. In this case, if the level data of the shift register 4 is smaller than the output of the adder 27,
In the data selection circuit 29, the output of the adder 28 is controlled so that the output of the 0 level signal generator 31 becomes the output of the data selection circuit 29.

As is clear from the above description, according to the image processing device of the present invention, the shape of the envelope of level data can be changed by a coefficient that can be arbitrarily set without lowering the highest level of the peak in the transducer scan direction. Since the function of compensating for the spread of the displayed image in the transducer scan direction is produced, the displayed image can be brought closer to the real image of the subject.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a level data envelope diagram for the scanning direction of an ultrasonic transducer, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention. In Fig. 1, a is the level data envelope obtained by the conventional device, and b
is the level data envelope after compensation, 1
~8 is a shift register, 9, 11, 13, 1
5, 17, 19, 21, 23 are comparison circuits, 1
0, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 2
4, 29, 40, 41, 42, 43 are data selection circuits, 44, 45 are latch circuits, 25, 26 are multiplication circuits, 27, 28 are addition circuits, 32 to 39 are constant setting circuits, 31 is 0 level setting Shows the circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an ultrasound image processing device, level data of a predetermined number of transducer scan directions are sequentially compared,
By detecting the highest level among them, multiplying the highest level by a compensation coefficient that can be arbitrarily set, and subtracting this multiplication result from other level data except for the highest level, the level data in the transducer scan direction is An image processing device that includes a circuit that changes the characteristics of an envelope.