JPS6199864A - Ultrasonic diagnosing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To transfer only necessary echo data to an external storage means and to store the echo data in a short time with high density by transferring the echo data from a buffer memory to the storage medium of the external storage means through a data and an address bus. CONSTITUTION:Echo data obtained by the ultrasonic probe are stored in respec tive line memory parts L1-LN of the buffer memory 2a of an ultrasonic diag nosing device 1a by as many as scanning lines. The stored echo data are read out and stored in an image memory 4 successively at necessary timing through a central control part 10. When the echo data are stored in the external storage means 8, the control part 10 reads the echo data stored in the memory 2a and transfers them to the means 8 through a data bus 12a and an address bus 14a. Then, only the necessary echo data are stored in the storage medium of the means 8 in a short time with high density.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus suitable for storing echo data obtained from an ultrasonic probe in a storage medium such as a floppy disk.

(b) Prior art and its problems A conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 1c includes one shown in FIG. This ultrasound diagnostic apparatus 1c includes a buffer memory 2C that temporarily stores echo data obtained by an ultrasound probe (not shown), and an image memory 4 that stores echo data read out from this buffer memory 2C. , a display 6 for displaying the echo data read out from the image memory 4, an external storage means 8 for externally storing the echo data, and a central control unit 10 for controlling the respective parts. The buffer memory 2c is for timing the scanning rate when writing the echo data given from the ultrasound probe to the next-stage image memory 4, and is usually a line memory for two ultrasound scanning lines. Part L consists of L1 and L2.

For example, while echo data is being written to one line memory section Ll, the other line memory section
, reads the echo data already stored from 2,
By storing this in the image memory 4, data transfer speed can be increased. Further, the echo data stored in the image memory 4 is sequentially read out by address designation from the central control unit 10, and the read echo data is displayed on the display 6. Furthermore, the data bus 12c and address bus 14c of the central control unit 10 are connected to the image memory 4, and when the echo data is to be stored in a storage medium of the external storage means 8, such as a floppy disk, the image memory The echo data read from 4 is transferred to data bus 1.
2C1 address bus 14c.

Note that 16 is an A/D converter, 18 is a D/A converter, and 20
2 is a control circuit for controlling writing and successive output of the buffer memory 2, and 22 is a memory of the central control unit IO.

By the way, the image memory 4 is set to have a storage capacity larger than the data actually required, and since echo data is stored according to the ultrasound scanning method, especially in the case of sector scanning, the echo data is actually There will be many empty pixels where no data is stored. Therefore, when storing the echo data in the image memory 4 in the external storage means 8, it is necessary to select and read out only the echo data excluding empty pixels from the image memory 4, or to omit that step and to store the echo data in the external storage means 8. It is necessary to transfer the entire memory 4 as data to the external storage means 8, which causes problems such as a long time being required for storage and a low storage density that only a small number of images can be stored.

(c) Objective The present invention aims to solve the problems of the conventional technology and to enable echo data to be stored in a storage medium of an external storage means in a short time and at high density.

(D) Structure In order to achieve the object stated in (-), the present invention includes a buffer memory for temporarily storing echo data obtained by an ultrasound probe, and a buffer memory for storing echo data read out from this buffer memory. a display device for displaying echo data read out from the image memory, an external storage means for externally storing the echo data, and a central control unit for controlling each of the aforementioned parts, wherein The memory and external storage means are connected to each other via a data bus and an address bus, and when storing echo data in the external storage means, instead of reading the echo data directly from the image memory as in the past, a buffer is used. Echo data is stored in a memory, and echo data is read from this buffer memory.

(e) Examples Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on examples shown in the drawings.

3 is a block configuration diagram of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the embodiment of FIG. 1, and parts corresponding to those in FIG. 3 are given the same reference numerals. FIG.

In FIG. 1, Ia is an ultrasonic diagnostic device, and 2a is a buffer memory that temporarily stores echo data obtained by an ultrasonic probe (not shown). It is configured with line memory sections L1 to LN. 4 is an image memory for storing the echo data read out from the buffer memory 2a; 6 is a display for displaying the echo data read out from the image memory 4; 6 is an external storage means for externally storing the echo data;
0 is a central control section that controls each of the above sections. Also, 16
is an A/D converter, 18 is a D/A converter, 20 is a control circuit for writing to the buffer memory 2 and controlling continuous output, 22
is a memory of the central control unit 10, and the rest of the configuration is the same as that of the conventional example.

The feature of this embodiment is that the buffer memory 2a and the external storage means 8 are connected to a data bus 12a1 and an address bus 14b.
are connected to each other through.

Therefore, the echo data obtained by the ultrasonic probe is stored in each line memory section Ll-T, H of the buffer memory 2a.
Each ultrasonic scanning line is memorized. The echo data stored in the buffer memory 2a is sequentially read out at necessary timing by the central control unit IO and stored in the image memory 4 at the next stage. On the other hand, when the echo data is to be stored in the external storage means 8, the central control unit IO reads out the echo data already stored in the buffer memory 2a, and the read echo data is stored via the data bus 12a and the address bus 14a. Transfer to external storage means 8. Alternatively, after being stored in the memory 22 of the central control unit IO, it is transferred to the external storage means 8 and stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the actual echo data is stored in the buffer memory 2.
Since the data is stored in A, the data can be transferred to the external storage means within a short period of time.

In addition to the above embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the buffer memory 2b is configured with line memory sections L1 and L2 for two ultrasonic scanning lines as in the conventional example, and instead of the buffer memory 2b and the image Echo data may be accessed bidirectionally with the memory 4. In this case, when transferring the echo data to the external storage means 8, the echo data is returned from the image memory 4 to the buffer memory 2b, and then transferred to the external storage means 8 via the data bus 12b and the address bus 14b.
Transfer to. Alternatively, it is stored in a memory storage medium of the central control unit 10. Conversely, when writing to the image memory 4, after storing it from the external storage means 8 to the buffer memory 2b via the data bus 12h1 address bus 14b,
Transfer to image memory 4.

Since mutual conversion of echo data is relatively easy to access between the image memory 4 and the buffer memory 2b, the image memory 4
This can be done in a shorter time than when reading echo data from.

(F) According to the present invention, the buffer memory and the external storage means are connected to each other via the data bus and the address bus, and the echo data of the buffer memory is transferred to the external memory via the data bus and the address bus. Since the echo data is stored in the storage medium of the storage means, only necessary echo data is transferred to the external storage means. Therefore, echo data can be transferred to the storage medium of the external storage means in a shorter time than before, and
Since it is possible to store the echo data at high density and to read the echo data from the storage medium in a short time, it becomes possible to immediately display the necessary diagnostic images on the display.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 shows a conventional example, and each of FIGS. 1 to 3 is a block diagram of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. la, lb... Ultrasonic diagnostic device, 2a, 2b... Buffer memory, 4... Image memory, 6... Display unit,
8... External storage means, 10... Central control unit, 12a
, 12b...data bus, 14a, 14b...address bus.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A buffer memory that temporarily stores echo data obtained by an ultrasound probe, an image memory that stores echo data read from this buffer memory, and echo data read from this image memory. an external storage means for externally storing the echo data;
and a central control unit that controls each of the units, wherein the buffer memory and external storage means are connected to a data bus,
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus characterized in that the apparatuses are connected to each other via an address bus, and the echo data of the buffer memory is stored in a storage medium of an external storage means via a data bus and an address bus.