Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and shear-elasticity measurement method therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9504451-B2
Application number	US-201214130561-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 23, 2012
Priority date	Jul 28, 2011
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

An inventive ultrasound diagnostic device is provided, which can display information on the temperature rise in a biological object under ultrasound radiation for measurement of a shear elasticity of a biological tissue of interest, thereby drawing attention of an examiner of the device and enabling him to retain the temperature rise within a predetermined safe range while performing the shear elasticity measurement. The device is adapted to measure the shear elasticity of a tissue by ultrasonic waves emitted from a probe. The device has a calculation unit configured to calculate a rise in temperature of the biological tissue irradiated with a focused ultrasonic (US) beam, and a display unit configured to display the temperature information obtained.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An ultrasound diagnostic device, the ultrasound diagnostic device comprising:
a control unit that is implemented by a processor; and
a calculation unit that is implemented via the control unit and that is configured to calculate a shear elasticity of an object, wherein the ultrasound diagnostic device measures the shear elasticity of the object by an ultrasound wave from a probe, wherein the probe irradiates an ultrasound wave to a plurality of focusing regions of the object; and
wherein
the control unit constructs a simulated profile of an ultrasound beam based on at least one of a shape of the probe, and a transmission frequency, a transmission waveform and a transmission power of the ultrasound wave,
when the control unit determines, using the simulated profile, that a displacement of tissue of the object in a first focusing region of the plurality of focusing regions is larger than a predetermined threshold due to a longitudinal ultrasound wave and/or a displacement of the tissue in the first focusing region is smaller than a predetermined threshold due to a transverse ultrasound wave,
the control unit controls the calculation unit to calculate the shear elasticity of the first focusing region based on another ultrasound wave irradiated to a second focusing region of the plurality of focusing regions other than the first focusing region instead of an ultrasound wave irradiated to the first focusing region.

2. The ultrasound diagnostic device according to claim 1 , wherein a spatial distance between beams of the ultrasound wave emitted to the focusing regions is adjustable.

3. The ultrasound diagnostic device according to claim 2 , wherein the spatial distance is adjustable in responding to a propagation area of the ultrasound wave for measuring the shear elasticity.

4. The ultrasound diagnostic device according to claim 2 , wherein a plurality of propagation areas are set up not to overlap each other.

5. The ultrasound diagnostic device according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of focusing regions are allocated in parallel to each other.

6. The ultrasound diagnostic device according to claim 1 , wherein positions of the plurality of focusing regions are switched in accordance with an imaging frame that establishes an image of the shear elasticity.

7. The ultrasound diagnostic device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a display configured to display a shear elasticity image, wherein when the control unit determines not to calculate the shear elasticity of a first focusing region, the display superimpose the first shear elasticity image where the shear elasticity is not calculated with a second shear elasticity image generated from the shear elasticity by the ultrasound wave irradiating the second focusing region.

Assignees

• Tamano Satoshi
• Hitachi Medical Corp

Inventors

• Tamano Satoshi

Classifications

• G01S7/52074

  Composite displays, e.g. split-screen displays; Combination of multiple images or of images and alphanumeric tabular information · CPC title

• A61B8/485 Primary

  involving measuring strain or elastic properties · CPC title

• G01S7/52036

  using analysis of echo signal for target characterisation · CPC title

• A61B8/085

  for locating body or organic structures, e.g. tumours, calculi, blood vessels, nodules · CPC title

• A61B8/5223

  for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data (for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012) · CPC title