JPWO2017073197A1 - Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is a technique for accurately measuring the length of a long bone such as a femur of a subject. An image processing unit 108 that generates a tomographic image of the subject based on a signal acquired from the probe unit 101 that transmits and receives ultrasound, and a femur length measurement unit that measures the length of the femur of the subject from the tomographic image 109 and an output unit 110 that displays the measurement result of the femur length measurement unit. The femur length measurement unit 109 measures the angle of the femur drawn on the tomographic image, and based on this angle, the femur Measure the length. By measuring based on the angle of the femur, the length of the femur can be measured more accurately.

Description

  The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and relates to an image processing technique for length measurement using a tomographic image.

  In fetal screening using an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, the length of the femur may be measured using a tomographic image in order to examine whether the fetus is growing normally. As a method for measuring the length of the femur, there is a technique described in Patent Document 1.

  This patent document describes a method of determining a diagonal distance or length of a rectangular frame surrounding an object as the length of the object image.

US Patent Publication US20140112578A1

  In Patent Document 1, the length of the femur is measured based on the diagonal distance or length of a rectangle fitted to the femur. Since this method uses a rectangle fitted to the femur and does not measure the length based on the length between both ends of the femur, it is difficult to accurately measure the length of the femur.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and a method for measuring the length of a long bone such as a femur more accurately.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, an image processing unit that generates a tomographic image of a subject based on a signal acquired from a probe unit that transmits and receives ultrasound, and a long tube of the subject from the tomographic image A long bone length measuring unit that measures the length of the bone, and an output unit that displays the measurement result of the long bone length measuring unit, and the long bone length measuring unit is a long tube drawn on a tomographic image Provided is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus configured to measure a bone angle and measure a long bone length based on the angle.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided an image processing method of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including a processing unit, wherein the processing unit outputs a signal acquired from a probe unit that transmits and receives ultrasonic waves. Of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that generates a tomographic image of a subject based on the angle, measures the angle of the long bone depicted on the tomographic image, and measures and outputs the length of the long bone based on the angle of the long bone An image processing method is provided.

  According to the present invention, the length of the long bone can be measured more accurately by performing measurement based on the angle of the long bone such as the femur.

The block diagram which shows the example of 1 structure of the ultrasonic diagnosing device based on each Example. The block diagram which shows the structure of the femur length measurement part based on Example 1. FIG. The figure which shows the measuring method in the femur length measurement part based on Example 1. FIG. The figure which shows the measuring method in the femur length measurement part based on Example 1. FIG. The figure for demonstrating the method of the femur measurement based on Example 1. FIG. The figure for demonstrating an example of the conventional femur length measurement. The figure which shows the one measuring method in the femur length measurement part based on Example 2. FIG. The figure which shows the other measuring method in the femur length measurement part based on Example 2. FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a screen presented to a user using an output unit according to the first embodiment. The schematic diagram which shows the other example of the screen shown to a user using the output part based on Example 1. FIG.

  Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention will be sequentially described with reference to the drawings. In the following examples, the femur is described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to other long bones such as the humerus. Here, the long bone refers to an elongated bone constituting the limbs and the like. In that case, the femoral length measurement unit, the femur extraction unit, and the like in the following embodiments are all read as the long canal measurement unit, the long canal extraction unit, and the like.

  The first embodiment includes an image processing unit that generates a tomographic image of a subject based on a signal acquired from a probe unit that transmits and receives ultrasound, and a thigh that measures the length of the femur of the subject from the tomographic image. A femoral length measurement unit, and an output unit that displays the measurement results of the femoral length measurement unit. The femoral length measurement unit measures the angle of the femur depicted on the tomographic image, and based on the angle, It is an Example of the ultrasonic diagnosing device of the structure which measures a bone length. Example 1 is an image processing method of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including a processing unit, and the processing unit obtains a tomographic image of a subject based on a signal acquired from a probe unit that transmits and receives ultrasonic waves. It is an Example of the image processing method of the ultrasonic diagnosing device which measures the angle of the femur produced | generated and imaged on a tomographic image, measures the femur length based on the angle of a femur, and outputs it.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to each embodiment of the present invention including the first embodiment. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 100 in FIG. 1 includes a probe unit 101 composed of an ultrasonic transducer for acquiring echo data, a transmission / reception unit 102 that controls transmission pulses and amplifies reception echo signals, and an analog signal. An analog / digital conversion unit 103 that converts a received signal into a digital signal, a beamforming processing unit 104 that bundles reception echoes from a plurality of transducers and performs phasing addition, and an RF signal from the beamforming processing unit 104 An image processing unit 108 that performs dynamic range compression, filtering processing, and scan conversion processing to generate a cross-sectional image 112 that represents a cross-section of the subject, and a femur length that measures the length of the femur depicted in the cross-sectional image 112 Consists of measurement unit 109, touch panel, keyboard, trackball, etc., and accepts user input The input unit 105, the control unit 107 that sets the parameters 111 in the image processing unit 108 and the femur length measurement unit 109 based on the user's input, a display, and the like are presented to the user. Output unit 110. The control unit 107, the image processing unit 108, and the femur length measurement unit 109 can be realized by a program executed by a central processing unit (CPU) 106 that is a calculation processing unit of a normal computer.

  Hereinafter, the femur length measuring unit 109 having the configuration shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The femur length measurement unit of the present embodiment extracts the femur region from the tomographic image, estimates the femoral angle from the extracted femur region, and calculates the end point of the femur based on the estimated angle The femur length is measured based on the calculated distance between the end points. Preferably, the femur extraction unit is based on a femur extraction unit that extracts a femur region from a tomographic image, a direction estimation unit that detects an angle of the femur from the femur region, and an angle of the femur Set the search line, calculate the end points of the femoral region on the search line, calculate the distance between the end points, find the measurement line from the search line with the maximum distance while moving the search line, A measurement unit that determines the end points of the femur region as measurement points and calculates the femur length based on the distance between the measurement points.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the femur length measuring unit 109. A femur length measuring unit 109 in FIG. 2 extracts a femoral region that is likely to be a femur from the cross-sectional image 112, and a direction estimation unit 202 that obtains the angle of the entire femur based on the extracted femoral region information. The measuring unit 203 measures the length of the femur based on the extracted femur region and the estimated femoral angle. Next, each functional block of the femur length measuring unit 109 will be described.

  The femur extraction unit 201 removes noise included in the cross-sectional image 112 and normalizes the pixel value, and then extracts a region that seems to be a femur by regarding a region having a large pixel value, that is, a high echo intensity as a femur. Finally, the femur region is extracted by connecting the femurs separated by noise or the like.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the procedure performed by the femur extraction unit 201.
Step 301 is pre-processing for the cross-sectional image 112, and noise removal and pixel value normalization are performed. Noise removal is performed by a median filter, for example. In step 302 of binarization processing described later, since a region having a large pixel value is regarded as a femur, it is desirable to remove noise that appears as a large pixel value in advance. That is, as a noise removal method, a method other than the median filter may be used as long as it has an effect of removing noise having a large pixel value. Pixel value normalization is performed by applying a linear look-up table that is set so that the upper and lower n% of the pixel value histogram is overexposed and underexposed. As the pixel value normalization method, any other method may be used as long as it can extract the femur region correctly in step 302.

  It should be noted that the filter size of the median filter, the degree of over-exposure or under-exposure in the lookup table, and the like can be changed by a parameter 111 generated according to a user instruction input through the input unit 105 and the control unit 107. Good. When this configuration is adopted, an accurate femoral region can be extracted by correcting the parameters even if the femur is unclearly displayed on the cross-sectional image 112 depending on the condition of the mother or the fetus.

  Step 302 is a binarization process in which the cross-sectional image pre-processed in step 301 is binarized with a predetermined threshold value to divide the region into a region that can be regarded as a femur and other regions. The threshold value may be a fixed value, but may be determined based on the filtering and normalization methods and their parameters in step 301, or the probe unit 101, the transmission / reception unit 102, the analog / digital conversion unit 103, the beam It may be determined according to the characteristics of the forming processing unit 104 and the image processing unit 108, or may be determined according to the number of gestation weeks, growth status, maternal state, etc. of the subject. Further, as a discriminant analysis method, a threshold value such as Nobuyuki Otsu, “A threshold selection method from gray level-histogram”, IEEE Trans. On Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 9 (1) is used. An appropriate threshold may be determined. Alternatively, a configuration may be adopted in which the threshold value can be changed by the parameter 111 generated in accordance with a user instruction input through the input unit 105 and the control unit 107.

  Step 303 is a region connection process for extracting an accurate femur region by connecting the femur regions extracted in step 302. Specifically, by applying an expansion filter and a contraction filter based on a morphological operation, regions separated by noise are connected. The application frequency of the expansion filter and the contraction filter may be fixed, but may be configured to be changeable by the parameter 111 generated according to the user's instruction input through the input unit 105 and the control unit 107. When processing is performed with this configuration, appropriate connection processing can be performed in accordance with the extracted femoral segmentation, and a more accurate femoral region can be extracted.

  The direction estimation unit 202 of the femur length measurement unit 109 estimates the angle of the entire femur region. There are various methods for estimating the angle. Here, a method using a second moment will be described. First, the variance M2,0 in the x-axis direction, the variance M0,2 in the y-axis direction, and the variance M1,1 in the xy-axis direction of the femur region are obtained by the following equations.

  Here, B (x, y) is a function representing the femur region extracted in step 303. When B (x, y) is 1, the femur region is indicated. Bone area is shown.

  Next, the angle θ of the femoral region is obtained by the following equation from the variance M2,0 in the x-axis direction, the variance M0,2 in the y-axis direction, and the variance M1,1 in the xy-axis direction.

  The measurement unit 203 of the femur length measurement unit 109 detects both ends of the femur as measurement points based on the estimated angle θ of the femur, and calculates the distance between the measurement points, thereby calculating the length of the femur. Measure the thickness.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the procedure performed by the measurement unit 203. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining the measurement process performed by the measurement unit 203. For example, when the femur region 502 is extracted from the image 501 that can be displayed on the display of the output unit 10, a search line 503 described later is displayed. It shows how it was set. A search line 503a shows a state when the search line 503 is set on the femur region 502. Further, end points 504 and 505 are intersections of the search line 503a and the femur region 502. The flowchart of FIG. 4 will be described below with reference to FIG.

  Step 401 is processing for setting the position and angle of the search line 503. The angle of the search line 503 is set to the angle θ of the femur estimated by the direction estimation unit 202, and the initial position of the search line 503 is set to the top of the image, that is, a line passing through the upper left corner. Through the iterative process described later, the position of the search line 503 is moved to the lowermost part of the image, that is, the position passing through the lower right corner while maintaining the angle θ, and the image is scanned from the upper end to the lower end.

  Step 402 is a process of calculating the end point of the femoral region 502 on the search line 503 by calculating the intersection of the search line 503 and the femoral region. Specifically, the search line 503 is searched from the left end to the right direction and further from the right end to the left direction, and the coordinates at which the search line 503 first reaches the femoral region 502 are respectively set as the left end point and the right end point. And For example, when the search line is at the position of the search line 503a, the left end point 504 and the right end point 505 are detected as the left and right end points.

  Step 403 is a process of calculating the distance between the end points of the search line obtained in the above step and holding it in a storage unit (not shown) attached to the CPU 106 as a processing unit, for example. The distance between the end points is calculated using the Euclidean distance. If the end point is not obtained in step 402, that is, if the femur region 502 does not exist on the search line 503, the distance is set to zero.

  Step 404 is processing for determining whether the search line 503 has been scanned from the upper end to the lower end of the image. Steps 401 to 403 are repeatedly executed while moving the search line until all the scans are completed.

  Step 405 is a process of searching for the longest distance from the measurement results of the distances between all end points held in the storage unit in step 403. In this embodiment, in step 405, the search line having the longest distance among the plurality of search lines is referred to as a measurement line, and the corresponding end point is referred to as a measurement point. At this time, the longest searched distance, that is, the distance between the measurement points of the measurement line becomes the apparent length of the femur, that is, the length on the image coordinates. Step 405 further converts the apparent length of the femur into an actual length of the femur in consideration of a method for generating a cross-sectional image in the image processing unit 108, for example, an image enlargement ratio, and the like through the output unit 110. Present to the user.

  In step 405, the femur length measurement unit 109 warns the user through the output unit 110 when the calculated actual femur length is clearly different from the standard value calculated from the fetal pregnancy week. It is good also as a structure which presents. That is, the femur length measurement unit includes a configuration that can output a warning to the output unit when it is determined that the measured femur length is an abnormal value. By determining whether or not the measured femur length is an abnormal value by comparing with a standard value stored in a storage unit or the like that is not shown in advance, the user can determine whether the cross-sectional image is correctly depicted or not. It is possible to recognize whether this is appropriate and whether the fetus is normal.

  Since the length of the femur is detected based on the angle of the femur in the cross-sectional image, the measurement accuracy is further improved by the configuration of this embodiment described in detail above. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram for explaining a measurement technique according to the prior art for comparison. In the conventional method, a rectangle 601 circumscribing the femur 502 is calculated, and the length of the diagonal 602 of the rectangle 601 is regarded as the length of the femur. In the prior art, when the femur is depicted thick and tilted, the length of the diagonal line 602 does not match the length of the femoral region. In this example, the diagonal line 602 has an error near the line segment 602a. There was a problem in measurement accuracy.

  On the other hand, in the configuration of the present embodiment, the length of the femur is calculated on the basis of the distance between the ends of the femur calculated based on the angle of the femur, and thus an error such as a line segment 602a. Can be measured with higher accuracy. In addition, the method for calculating the distance between both ends of the femur realized by the configuration of the present embodiment is a standard method used when a doctor manually measures the length of the femur from a cross-sectional image. Therefore, consistency with the manual measurement result is also improved.

  Further, the femur length measurement unit 109 superimposes information on the search line 503 determined as the measurement line in step 403, the left end point 504 determined as the measurement point, and the right end point 505 on the cross-sectional image 112, for example. And may be presented to the user through the output unit 110. That is, the femur length measurement unit has a configuration in which at least one of the end points or the lines passing through the end points is superimposed on the tomographic image and output to the output unit.

  FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a screen presented to the user using the display of the output unit 110. A cross-sectional image 112 is superimposed on the output screen 901, and a femur 903 is depicted on the cross-sectional image 112. At this time, the measurement line 503, the left end point 504 set as the measurement point, and the right end point 505 are superimposed on the output screen by line segments and points, respectively. With this configuration, the user can more intuitively determine whether the measurement result is correct.

  Further, the femur length measurement unit 109 converts the information of the measurement line 503, the left end point 504 and the right end point 505, which are measurement points, into a cross-sectional image 112 in which the periphery of the left end point 504 and the right end point 505 is enlarged. It may be visualized by superimposing and presented to the user through the output unit 110. That is, the femur length measurement unit has a configuration in which a tomographic image near the end point is enlarged to obtain an enlarged tomographic image, at least one of the end point or a line passing through the end point is superimposed on the enlarged tomographic image, and output to the output unit. Also good.

  FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a screen presented to the user, and shows a state in which an enlarged view is further superimposed on the screen shown in FIG. Similarly to the output screen 901 in FIG. 9, a cross-sectional image 902, a femur 903, a measurement line 503, a left end point 504 that is a measurement point, and a right end point 505 are drawn on the output screen 1001. On the output screen 1001, an enlarged view 1002 of the left end point 504 and an enlarged view 1003 of the right end point 504 are also drawn. The enlarged view 1002 of the left end point 504 is an enlarged cross-sectional image 1006 near the left end point 504, and the left end point 504 and the measurement line 503 are superimposed. The enlarged view 1003 of the right end point is the right end point. A cross-sectional image 1005 near 505 is enlarged, and a right end point 505 and a measurement line 503 are superimposed. At this time, it is desirable that the enlarged view 1002 of the left end point and the enlarged view 1003 of the right end point are superimposed so that the femur 903, the measurement line 503, the left end point 504, and the right end point 505 are not hidden.

  With this configuration, the user can grasp the vicinity of the left and right end points, which are measurement points, in more detail while looking at the entire femur, and can easily determine whether the measurement result is correct.

  The second embodiment further includes an input unit that receives a correction input from the user, and the femoral length measurement unit is configured to be able to correct the femur length according to the input from the input unit. It is the Example of an apparatus. That is, in this embodiment, when the measurement result expected in the first embodiment is not output, the user can easily correct the measurement result. With reference to FIG. 2, FIG. 7, and FIG. 8, only the blocks that are changed from the first embodiment are shown below.

  The femur length measurement unit 109 in the present embodiment has substantially the same configuration as that in FIG. 2 of the first embodiment, but the parameter 111 generated according to the user's instruction input through the input unit 105 and the control unit 107 is measured. It changes so that it may input with respect to 203. First, the measurement unit 203 in this embodiment automatically measures the length of the femur by the program processing of the CPU 106 that is the processing unit by the method described in detail in the first embodiment, and then corrects from the user based on the input parameter 111. Correct measurement results as required.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure performed by the measurement unit 203 in this embodiment. Step 701 performs a series of processes of the measurement unit 203 in the first embodiment. That is, the process from the start to the end shown in the flowchart of FIG.

  Step 702 is a process of asking the user whether or not the measurement result needs to be corrected. In step 702, the output unit 110 inquires of the user whether there is a correction, and accepts a user instruction through the input unit 105 and the control unit 107. If the user gives an instruction that no correction is required, this flow ends, and the measurement result obtained by using the current measurement line and measurement point measured by the automatic measurement 701 indicates the femur. Is determined as the length of

  Step 703 is a process of accepting an instruction to move the measurement line from the user and setting the position of a new measurement line. For example, using a vertical uniaxial joystick as the input unit 105, step 703 sets the movement destination of the measurement line 503 in accordance with the vertical direction instruction. Steps 402 and 403 perform the same processing as in the first embodiment described with reference to FIG.

  With the above configuration, the user can change the position of the measurement line 503 with a simple operation, and based on the measurement line set in step 703, the left end point 504, which is a measurement point, is programmed by the CPU 106 in step 402. Since the position of the right end point 505 is reset and the femur length is recalculated, the measurement result can be easily corrected.

  Further, after step 403, the femur length measurement unit 109 visualizes the information of the measurement line 503, the left end point 504 that is the measurement point, and the right end point 505 and presents them to the user as in the first embodiment. Also good. With this configuration, the user can move the measurement line and the measurement point while checking the measurement result, and can easily correct the measurement result.

  In step 703, the angle of the measurement line may be corrected by the user. For example, using an up / down / left / right biaxial joystick as the input unit 105, step 703 can correct the angle of the measurement line according to the up / down direction and the center position when rotating the measurement line according to the left / right direction. With this configuration, the user can easily change the angle of the measurement line, and in step 402, the CPU 106 performs program processing to remeasure the left end point 504 and the right end point 505, which are the measurement points. Since the length is recalculated, the measurement result can be easily and quickly corrected.

  Further, in step 703, the length of the measurement line may be corrected by the user. For example, using a two-axis joystick in the up / down / left / right axis direction as the input unit 105, step 703 selects the left or right end point whose length is changed according to the up / down direction instruction, and is selected according to the left / right direction instruction. Extend or shorten the end point without changing the angle of the measurement line. In this configuration, step 402 is not performed. With this configuration, the user can easily correct the length of the measurement line 503 with a simple operation.

  Also, the measurement unit 203 of FIG. 2 may be changed to input the cross-sectional image 112, and the length of the measurement line may be semi-automatically corrected by the user in step 703.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a semi-automatic correction procedure performed by the measurement unit 203 in this configuration. In FIG. 8, step 701, step 702, and step 403 are the same as those described above, and step 402 is omitted.

  Step 801 accepts an instruction from the user using a biaxial joystick in the vertical and horizontal axis directions as the input unit 105. Specifically, the left or right end point whose length is changed is selected in accordance with the up / down direction instruction of the joystick, and the selected end point is extended or shortened without changing the angle of the measurement line according to the left / right direction instruction. In step 801, when the coordinates of the right end point are corrected by the user, the CPU 106 acquires the pixel value of the coordinates corrected by the program processing from the cross-sectional image 112 input to the measurement unit 203, and determines the left end point. It corrects based on the acquired pixel value. More specifically, the measurement unit 203 uses the cross-sectional image 112 to search for the pixel value closest to the pixel value of the right end point on the measurement line around the left end point, and to determine the coordinates of the left end point. Coordinates can be used. If the end point corrected by the user is on the left, the coordinates are corrected in the same manner for the right end point.

  With this configuration, it is possible to easily correct the length of the measurement line 503 with a simple operation using the input cross-sectional image 112, and also to correct the coordinates of the other end point by simply correcting the coordinates of the other end point. Since the correction is made, the length of the measurement line 503 can be corrected more easily.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to an above-described Example, Various modifications are included. For example, the above-described embodiments have been described in detail for easy understanding of the present invention, and are not necessarily limited to those having all the configurations described. Further, a part of the configuration of one embodiment can be replaced with the configuration of another embodiment, and the configuration of another embodiment can be added to the configuration of one embodiment. Further, it is possible to add, delete, and replace other configurations for a part of the configuration of each embodiment.

  Moreover, although each said structure, a function, a process part, a control part, etc. demonstrated that one part or all part was implement | achieved by software by interpreting and executing the program which each CPU implement | achieves each function. For example, it may be realized by hardware by designing with an integrated circuit. Information such as a program, a table, and a file for realizing each function is stored in a storage unit of a computer (not shown), a recording device such as a hard disk, an SSD (Solid State Drive), an IC card, or an SD card. It can be placed on a recording medium such as a DVD.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 101 Probe part 102 Transmission / reception part 102 Analog / digital conversion part 104 Beam forming process part 105 Input part 106 Central process part (CPU)
107 control unit 108 image processing unit 109 femur length measurement unit 110 output unit 111 parameters 112, 902, 1005, 1006 sectional image 201 femur extraction unit 202 direction estimation unit 203 measurement unit 501 images 502, 903 femur 503 search (measurement) ) Line 504 Left end point 505 Right end point 601 Rectangle 602 Diagonal lines 901 and 1001 Output screens 1002 and 1003 Enlarged view

Claims (14)

An image processing unit that generates a tomographic image of a subject based on a signal acquired from a probe unit that transmits and receives ultrasound; and
A long bone length measuring unit that measures the length of the long bone of the subject from the tomographic image;
An output unit for displaying the measurement result of the long bone length measuring unit,
The long bone length measurement unit measures the angle of the long bone drawn on the tomographic image, and measures the long bone length based on the angle,
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1,
It further includes an input unit that receives correction input from the user,
The long bone length measuring unit is
Correcting the long bone length according to the input from the input unit, the long bone length;
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1,
The long bone length measuring unit is
When it is determined that the measured long bone length is an abnormal value, a warning is output to the output unit.
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1,
The long bone length measuring unit is
Calculating an end point of the long bone based on the angle of the long bone, and measuring the long bone length based on the calculated distance between the end points;
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 4,
The long bone length measuring unit is
Superimposing at least one of the end points or lines passing through the end points on the tomographic image, and outputting to the output unit,
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 4,
The long bone length measuring unit is
Enlarging the tomographic image near the end point to obtain an enlarged tomographic image, superimposing at least one of the end point or a line passing through the end point on the enlarged tomographic image, and outputting to the output unit,
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1,
The long bone length measuring unit is
A long bone extraction unit that extracts a long bone region from the tomographic image;
A direction estimating unit that estimates an angle of the long bone from the long bone region;
Set a search line based on the angle of the long bone, calculate the end points of the long bone region on the search line, calculate the distance between the end points, and move the search line while moving the search line Determining, determining an end point of the long bone region on the measurement line as a measurement point, and a measurement unit that calculates the long bone length based on a distance between the measurement points,
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. An image processing method of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including a processing unit,
The processor is
Generate a tomographic image of a subject based on a signal acquired from a probe unit that transmits and receives ultrasound, measure the angle of the long bone drawn on the tomographic image, and based on the angle of the long bone To measure and output the long bone length,
An image processing method for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The image processing method of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 8,
The processor is
Correct the measured long bone length according to the correction input from the user.
An image processing method for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The image processing method of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 8,
The processor is
When it is determined that the measured long bone length is an abnormal value, a warning is output.
An image processing method for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The image processing method of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 8,
The processor is
Calculating an end point of the long bone based on the angle of the long bone, and measuring the long bone length based on the calculated distance between the end points;
An image processing method for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The image processing method of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 11,
The processor is
Superimposing and outputting at least one of the end points or lines passing through the end points on the tomographic image,
An image processing method for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The image processing method of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 11,
The processor is
Enlarging the tomographic image in the vicinity of the end point to obtain an enlarged tomographic image, and superimposing and outputting at least one of the end point or a line passing through the end point on the enlarged tomographic image,
An image processing method for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The image processing method of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 8,
The processor is
Extracting a long bone region from the tomographic image, estimating the angle of the long bone from the long bone region, setting a search line based on the estimated angle of the long bone, on the search line Calculate the end point of the long bone region, calculate the distance between the end points, determine the measurement line while moving the search line, and determine the end point of the long bone region on the measurement line as the measurement point An image processing method of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for calculating the long bone length based on a distance between the measurement points.

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