KR101495526B1 - Method and apparatus for providing acoustic radiation force impulse imaging - Google Patents

Abstract

Obtaining strain information of the object by the vibration force of the internal vibrating body; Correcting strain information of the object based on the magnitude of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body; Generating an elastic image for a target object using the strain information of the corrected target object; And displaying an elastic image of the generated target object.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to an elastic image providing method and an elastic image providing apparatus,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a method of providing an accurate elastic image (ARFI) considering the magnitude of a vibration of an internal vibrating body, and an elastic image providing apparatus therefor.

Elastography is an image of the elasticity of an object. The elasticity of a subject is related to the pathological phenomenon of the subject. Tumors are harder than normal tissues. That is, when the same pressure is applied to the normal tissue and the tumor, the strain of the normal tissue is larger than the strain of the tumor because the elasticity of the tumor is larger than the elasticity of the normal tissue. Therefore, elastic imaging can be used for tumor or cancer diagnosis.

For example, an elasticity contrast index (ECI) obtained using an elastic imaging technique can be used to diagnose tissue nodules. The elasticity difference index (ECI) is a quantification of the stiffness difference between the tissue nodule and normal tissue around the nodule. The larger the elasticity difference index (ECI), the more nodule means hardness, and the greater the probability that the nodule is malignant. In addition to the detection and classification of cancer or tumor, the elastic imaging method can be applied to various fields such as kidney transplantation monitoring, skin and tissue engineering, and cancer treatment monitoring.

Currently the most widely used elastic imaging method is Free-hand Elastography. This method is advantageous in that the user can use the probe directly to apply force, but it has a disadvantage that the force can not be uniformly applied.

Therefore, there is a need for an ultrasound device that can compensate for the disadvantages of free-hand elastography and provide accurate elasticity images.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an elastic image providing method comprising: obtaining strain information of a target object by a vibration force of an internal vibrator; Correcting strain information of the object based on the magnitude of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body; Generating an elastic image for a target object using the strain information of the corrected target object; And displaying an elastic image for the generated object.

The elasticity image providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a step of correcting strain information of the object based on the blood pressure information of the internal vibrating body.

The elasticity image providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention may include the step of correcting the strain information of the object based on the magnitude of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body according to the distance between the internal vibrating body and the object.

The elasticity image providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include correcting strain information of the object based on the distance between the object and the outer wall of the organ.

The method of providing an elastic image according to an embodiment of the present invention may include displaying an elastic image in a color map form.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an elastic image providing method comprising: detecting a lesion of a target object based on strain information of a corrected target object; Calculating the number of positive and malignant potentials of the target lesion; And displaying the calculated numerical value.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for providing an elastic image, the apparatus including: an acquiring unit acquiring deformation information of an object by a vibration force of an internal vibrating body; A correcting unit for correcting strain information of the object based on the magnitude of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body; An image processing unit for generating an elastic image for the object using the strain information of the corrected object; A display unit for displaying an elastic image of the generated object; And a control unit for controlling the obtaining unit, the correcting unit, the image processing unit, and the display unit.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an elastic image providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a flowchart illustrating an elastic image providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a diagram showing an ultrasound image of an internal vibrating body according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the magnitude of the vibration of the internal vibrating body and the strain of the object according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a view for explaining a method of correcting strain information of a target object in consideration of a distance between a target object and an internal vibrator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a view for explaining a strain information correction method for a target object in consideration of the influence of the long-term external wall according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a view showing an elastic image related to an embodiment of the present invention.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Also, in certain cases, there may be a term selected arbitrarily by the applicant, in which case the meaning thereof will be described in detail in the description of the corresponding invention. Therefore, the term used in the present invention should be defined based on the meaning of the term, not on the name of a simple term, but on the entire contents of the present invention.

When an element is referred to as "including" an element throughout the specification, it is to be understood that the element may include other elements, without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Also, the terms "part," " module, "and the like described in the specification mean units for processing at least one function or operation, which may be implemented in hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software .

Throughout the specification, "object" can mean a portion of the body. For example, a subject may include an organs such as liver, heart, uterus, brain, breast, abdomen, or fetus. An object according to an embodiment of the present invention may include an interested tissue for pathological diagnosis. Further, the object according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include adjacent arteries adjacent to the tissue of interest and adjacent tissues adjacent to the tissue of interest. For example, if the tissue of interest is a thyroid, the adjacent artery may be a carotid, and the adjacent tissue may be a trachea.

In the entire specification, "strain" means the degree to which the object is deformed by a stress or pressure applied per unit area.

Throughout the specification, the term "user" may be, but is not limited to, a medical professional such as a doctor, nurse, clinician,

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and similar parts are denoted by like reference characters throughout the specification.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an elastic image providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The apparatus 100 for providing an elastic image according to an embodiment of the present invention refers to a device capable of acquiring an ultrasound image or an elastic image from a target object by using ultrasound waves and displaying the obtained ultrasound image or elasticity image to a user .

The elastic image providing apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can be implemented in various forms. For example, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 described in the present specification can be implemented not only as a fixed terminal but also as a mobile terminal. Examples of mobile terminals include laptop computers, PDAs, tablet PCs, and the like.

The elastic image providing apparatus 100 may include an acquisition unit 110, a correction unit 120, an image processing unit 130, a display unit 140, and a controller 150. However, not all illustrated components are required. The elastic image providing apparatus 100 may be embodied by more elements than the illustrated elements, and the elastic image providing apparatus 100 may be embodied by fewer elements.

The acquiring unit 110 can acquire strain information of the object. The deformation rate of the object according to an embodiment of the present invention means the degree of deformation of the object due to the vibration force of the internal vibrating body. The acquiring unit 110 may include a transducer and a data generating unit. That is, the acquiring unit 110 can acquire strain information of a target object by using a transducer (not shown) and a data generating unit (not shown).

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the acquisition unit 110 may transmit an ultrasonic signal to a target object using the transducer. The acquiring unit 110 may receive an ultrasonic echo signal reflected from the object using the transducer. The acquiring unit 110 may acquire a plurality of ultrasound image frames using the received ultrasound echo signals.

Meanwhile, the acquiring unit 110 may generate strain information on the object through the data generator. That is, the data generation unit according to an embodiment of the present invention can extract the displacement of the object by comparing the plurality of ultrasound image frames, and generate the strain information about the object using the extracted displacement.

The acquiring unit 110 may acquire size information of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body. The internal vibrating body according to an embodiment of the present invention refers to a stress source existing in the body. An example of the internal vibrating body may be a blood vessel such as a carotid artery. The magnitude of the vibration force according to an embodiment of the present invention means the intensity of the force applied to the external tissue by the internal vibrating body. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the acquiring unit 110 compares a plurality of ultrasound image frames to extract a displacement of the internal vibrating body, and acquires size information of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body using the extracted displacement can do.

The correcting unit 120 can correct the strain information of the object obtained by the obtaining unit 110 based on the magnitude of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body. The correcting unit 120 corrects strain information of the object in consideration of the intensity of the force applied by the internal vibrating body to the object.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the correcting unit 120 can correct strain information of the object based on the blood pressure information of the internal vibrating body. When the internal vibrating body is a blood vessel (e.g., carotid artery), the magnitude of the vibrating force of the internal vibrating body may be changed according to the magnitude of the blood pressure of the blood vessel. Therefore, the correcting unit 120 regards the blood pressure of the normal person as the reference blood pressure, compares the blood pressure information of the examinee with the reference blood pressure, and corrects the strain information of the subject.

The magnitude of the vibratory force of the internal vibrating body of the hypotensive patient is smaller than the magnitude of the vibrating force of the normal person, and the magnitude of the vibrating force of the internal vibrating body of the hypertensive patient is larger than the magnitude of the vibrating force of the normal person. That is, the magnitude of the stress applied to the object by the inner vibrating body of the hypotensive patient is smaller than the magnitude of the stress applied to the object by the inner vibrating body of the normal person, and the magnitude of the stress applied by the inner vibrating body of the hypertensive patient to the target body is It is bigger than the size of stress.

Therefore, the correcting unit 120 can calculate the weight for correcting the strain information of the object based on the blood pressure information of the internal vibrating body. The weight is increased as the blood pressure is lowered.

For example, when the blood pressure of the examinee is lower than the blood pressure of a normal person, the correcting unit 120 can calculate a weight value exceeding 1. The correcting unit 120 corrects strain information of the object by applying the calculated weights.

In patients with hypotension, the magnitude of the vibratory force of the internal vibrator is lower than that of the general population, so that even the normal tissue may be suspected to be a tumor because the strain of the subject is low. Therefore, the correction unit 120 needs to correct the strain information of the subject of the hypotensive subject.

On the other hand, when the blood pressure of the examinee is higher than the blood pressure of the normal person, the correcting unit 120 can calculate a weight less than 1. The correcting unit 120 can correct the strain information of the target object by applying the calculated weights. In the case of hypertensive patients, since the magnitude of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body is larger than that of the general person, the strain of the object may be high even if the object is a tumor tissue. Therefore, the correction unit 120 needs to correct the strain information of the subject of the hypertensive patient.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the correction unit 120 may correct strain information of a target object in consideration of the distance between the internal vibrating body and the target object. As the distance between the inner vibrating body and the object increases, the object is less affected by the inner vibrating body. This is because the magnitude of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body applied to the object is dependent on the distance between the object and the internal vibrating body.

Accordingly, the correction unit 120 can calculate a higher weight as the distance between the internal vibrating body and the object increases. The correcting unit 120 corrects strain information of the object by applying the calculated weight to the deformation rate of the object.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the corrector 120 may correct strain information of the object based on the distance between the object and the outer wall. An organ outer wall according to an embodiment of the present invention refers to a portion where an organ (or tissue) and an organ (or tissue) are in contact with each other. As an example of the external wall of the organ, there may be a portion where the thyroid and the trachea are in contact.

The elastic image providing apparatus 100 can not obtain accurate strain information from a target object near the long-term outer wall. The closer the object is to the outer wall of the organ, the more likely the object will be affected by other organs as well as the internal vibrator.

Therefore, the correcting unit 120 can calculate the weight to correct the deformation information of the object in consideration of the distance between the object and the long-term outer wall. The weight increases as the object approaches the long-term outer wall.

The image processing unit 130 may generate an elastic image for the target object using the corrected strain information of the target object. That is, the image processor 130 can adjust the pixel brightness and / or color of the elastic image based on the corrected strain information of the target object.

The display unit 140 may display and output information processed by the elastic image providing apparatus 100. [ For example, the display unit 140 may display an elastic image of a target object. In this case, the display unit 140 may overlay the elastic image on the ultrasound image of the target object.

The ultrasound image according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include a brightness mode, a color mode, an M mode, a PW (pulsed-wave) mode, a CW (continuous wave) -dimensional mode, and a three-dimensional (3D) mode.

The display unit 140 may display an elastic image of the object in a color map form. Also, the display unit 140 may display the positive and malicious probability values of the lesion-detected subject. A lesion is a change in a living body caused by a disease.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the numerical value may be displayed separately from the elastic image, or may be displayed on the elastic image.

When the display unit 140 and the touch pad have a mutual layer structure to constitute a touch screen, the display unit 140 may be used as an input device in addition to the output device. The display unit 140 may be a liquid crystal display, a thin film transistor-liquid crystal display, an organic light-emitting diode, a flexible display, a three-dimensional display 3D display).

There may be two or more display units 140 according to the embodiment of the elastic image providing apparatus 100. [ The touch screen can be configured to detect the touch input position as well as the touch input area as well as the touch input pressure. In addition, the touch screen can be configured to detect not only the real-touch but also the proximity touch.

The control unit 150 can detect the lesion of the target object based on the strain information of the corrected target object. Also, the control unit 150 may calculate the positive and malicious likelihoods of the target lesion in which the lesion is detected by numerical values.

For example, when the deformation rate of the target object exceeds a predetermined range, the controller 150 may determine that a lesion exists in the target object. At this time, the controller 150 may calculate the positivity and the malicious probability as a numerical value according to the degree of deformation of the object exceeding the predetermined range.

The control unit 150 may control the acquisition unit 110, the correction unit 120, the image processing unit 130, and the display unit 140 as a whole.

Hereinafter, a method of providing an accurate elastic image to a target object through each configuration of the elastic image providing apparatus 100 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

2 is a flowchart illustrating an elastic image providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the method for providing an elastic image according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes steps of time series processing in the elastic image providing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. Therefore, it is understood that the above description about the elastic image device 100 shown in FIG. 1 is applied to the elastic image providing method of FIG. 2, even if omitted from the following description.

As shown in FIG. 2, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 can obtain strain information of the object by the vibration force of the internal vibrating body (S210). According to an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 may receive the strain information of the object from the outside, or may acquire from the object using the direct ultrasonic signal.

For example, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 may transmit a plurality of ultrasound signals to a target object, receive ultrasound response signals from the target object, and generate a plurality of ultrasound image frames for the target object. At this time, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 can measure a positional change (displacement) of the object within a plurality of ultrasound image frames. The elastic image providing apparatus 100 acquires strain information of the object by the vibration force of the internal vibrating body based on the measured positional change of the object.

Referring to FIG. 3, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 uses the carotid artery 310 as an internal vibrating body to obtain an elastic image of the thyroid. The elastic image providing apparatus 100 detects the strain rate of the thyroid gland due to the relaxing / contracting force of the carotid artery 310. If the thyroid strain is lower than the reference strain (normal thyroid strain), the thyroid is harder than the normal soft tissue. In other words, there is a greater likelihood of cancer or tumor tissue in the thyroid gland.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 may correct strain information of the object based on the magnitude of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body (S220).

For example, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the elasticity-image providing apparatus 100 can correct strain information of a target object based on blood pressure information of an internal vibrating body. When the internal vibrating body is a blood vessel such as a carotid artery, the force (vibration power) applied to the body by the internal vibrating body may be greater as the blood pressure is higher. This is because the strain of the object depends on the blood pressure of the internal vibrating body.

Therefore, the elasticity-providing apparatus 100 compares the blood pressure of the internal vibrating body with the reference blood pressure of a normal person and corrects strain information of the object. Referring to FIG.

4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the magnitude of the vibration of the internal vibrating body and the strain of the object according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The blood pressure of the normal person A may be 80-120 mmHg and the blood pressure of the hypotensive patient B may be 50-90 mmHg as shown in FIG. When the blood pressure is 50 mmHg, the strain is a, the blood pressure is 80 mmHg, the strain is b, the blood pressure is 90 (mmHg), the strain is c, and the blood pressure is 120 (mmHg) Lt; / RTI > That is, with respect to the same object, the strain rate due to the internal vibrating body having hypotension may be lower than that caused by the internal vibrating body having the normal blood pressure. Therefore, weighting is applied to the deformation rate of the object by the internal vibrating body having hypotension, so that the elastic image providing apparatus 100 can display a more accurate elastic image.

Since the elasticity image providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention acquires the strain information of the object using the internal vibrating body and corrects the strain information of the object in consideration of the blood pressure characteristic of the internal vibrating body, The accuracy of the elastic image can be increased.

According to the second embodiment of the present invention, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 may correct strain information of the object based on the magnitude of the vibration force of the internal vibrating body according to the distance between the internal vibrating body and the object. This will be described with reference to FIG.

5 is a view for explaining a method of correcting strain information of a target object in consideration of a distance between a target object and an internal vibrator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, the tissue distant from the carotid artery 510, which is an internal vibration, is less affected by the carotid artery 510. The greater the distance between the internal vibrating body and the object, the weaker the internal vibrating body applies to the object. Therefore, even if the structure has the same characteristics, the deformation rate becomes larger as it is closer to the inner vibrating body, and becomes smaller as it is farther from the inner vibrating body.

The apparatus 100 for providing an elastic image according to an embodiment of the present invention corrects strain information of a target object in consideration of the distance between the internal vibrating body and the target object so that a more accurate elasticity image can be provided to the user.

According to the third embodiment of the present invention, the elasticity-image providing apparatus 100 may correct strain information of a target object based on the distance between the object and the long-term outer wall. When the object is close to the long-term outer wall, since the object is affected by other organs, the strain information of the object obtained by the elastic image providing apparatus 100 may be low in accuracy. Will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 is a view for explaining a strain information correction method for a target object in consideration of the influence of the long-term external wall according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6, the internal vibrating body is the carotid artery 620, the subject is the thyroid 630, and the other organ adjacent to the subject may be a trachea 610. The thyroid 630 may be influenced by the vibratory force of the carotid artery 620 while being influenced by the airway 610, another organ. The tissue adjacent to the outer wall between the thyroid 630 and the airway 610 is more likely to receive the airway 610.

Since the elasticity image providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention corrects strain information of a target object in consideration of the distance between an outer wall of an organ and a target object, distortion of the target object is caused by the influence of other organs .

Referring back to FIG. 2, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 may generate an elastic image for the target object using the corrected strain information of the target object (S230).

According to an embodiment of the present invention, since the strain information of the object is corrected in consideration of at least one of the blood pressure of the internal vibrating body, the distance between the internal vibrating body and the object, and the influence of other organs, It is possible to generate a correct elastic image for the object.

The elastic image providing apparatus 100 may display an elastic image of the generated object (S240). According to an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic image may be displayed on the ultrasound image of the target object. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic image may be displayed as a color map.

7 is a view showing an elastic image related to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 7, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 may display an elastic image 710 related to a target object on a B mode image. In this case, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 can express the strain rate of the object, that is, the degree of stiffness, in color. For example, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 may be expressed in a blue-based color when the object is rigid and in a red-based color when the object is soft.

Therefore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the user can visually grasp the elasticity of the object easily.

On the other hand, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 can detect the lesion of the target object based on the corrected strain information of the target object. The elastic image providing apparatus 100 may calculate and display the positive and malicious likelihoods of the target lesion detected by the lesion. In general, malignant tumors are harder than surrounding tissues, and benign tumors have similar stiffness to surrounding tissues.

The method according to an embodiment of the present invention can be implemented in the form of a program command which can be executed through various computer means and recorded in a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs; magnetic media such as floppy disks; Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code such as those produced by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 can apply uniform stress to a target object using an internal vibrating body.

In addition, according to one embodiment of the present invention, the elastic image providing apparatus 100 may be configured such that the elastic image providing apparatus 100 includes at least one of a magnitude of a vibration force of the internal vibrating body, a distance between the internal vibrating body and the object, By correcting the strain information, it is possible to provide a more accurate elastic image to the user than the existing elastic image.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, It belongs to the scope of right.

100: elastic image providing device
110:
120:
130:
140:
150:
310, 510, 620: internal vibrating body

Claims (13)

Obtaining strain information of a target object deformed by an internal vibrating body using a plurality of ultrasound image frames;
Correcting strain information of the object based on magnitude of a vibration force of the internal vibrating body;
Generating an elastic image for the target object using the corrected strain information of the target object; And
And displaying an elastic image of the generated target object.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of correcting strain information of the object comprises:
And correcting strain information of the object based on blood pressure information of the internal vibrating body.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of correcting strain information of the object comprises:
And correcting strain information of the object based on a magnitude of a vibration force of the internal vibrating body according to a distance between the internal vibrating body and the object.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of correcting strain information of the object comprises:
Further comprising the step of correcting strain information of the object based on the distance between the object and the outer wall of the organ.
The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the elastic image comprises:
And displaying the elastic image in a color map form.
The method of claim 1,
Detecting a lesion of the target object based on the corrected strain information of the target object;
Calculating the number of positive and malignant potentials of the target lesion by numerical values; And
Further comprising the step of displaying the calculated numerical value.
An acquiring unit that acquires strain information of a target object deformed by the internal vibrating body using a plurality of ultrasound image frames;
A correcting unit correcting strain information of the object based on magnitude of a vibration force of the internal vibrating body;
An image processing unit for generating an elastic image for the target object using the corrected strain information of the target object;
A display unit for displaying an elastic image of the generated object; And
And a control unit for controlling the acquiring unit, the correcting unit, the image processing unit, and the display unit.
8. The method of claim 7,
Wherein,
And corrects strain information of the object based on blood pressure information of the internal vibrating body.
8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7,
And corrects strain information of the object based on a magnitude of a vibration force of the internal vibrating body according to a distance between the internal vibrating body and the object.
8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7,
And corrects strain information of the object based on a distance between the object and the long-term outer wall.
The display device according to claim 7,
And displays the elastic image in a color map form.
8. The apparatus of claim 7,
Detecting a lesion of the subject based on the corrected strain information of the subject, calculating the positivity and malicious possibility of the lesion detected by the lesion numerically,
The display unit includes:
And displays the calculated numerical value.
A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for implementing the elastic image providing method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is recorded.

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