Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9568598-B2
Application number	US-48446509-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2009
Priority date	Jun 18, 2008
Publication date	Feb 14, 2017
Grant date	Feb 14, 2017

Abstract

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises an ultrasonic probe configured to transmit ultrasound to a test body and receive an echo signal, an image generation unit configured to generate a plurality of tomograms with respect to the test body based on the echo signal, an image memory configured to record the generated tomograms, and a control processor. The control processor performs control such that image processing of extracting a microstructure is performed, using correlation between a tomogram stored in the image memory and a tomogram corresponding to a position of the ultrasonic probe at that point in time. The microstructure-extracted image is displayed on the display part in a predetermined form.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus configured to ultrasonically scan a test body and acquire a tomogram, the apparatus comprising:
an ultrasonic probe configured to transmit ultrasound to the test body and receive an echo signal from the test body;
a position detector configured to detect a position of the ultrasonic probe at each of a plurality of timings;
processing circuitry configured to generate a plurality of time series tomograms of the test body based on outputs from the ultrasonic probe, the time series tomograms corresponding to the plurality of timings, respectively;
a memory configured to store the time series tomograms generated by the processing circuitry,
wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to
determine a frame interval based on an amount of movement calculated from positions detected by the position detector and a frame rate at which the time series tomograms are generated,
select, from among the time series tomograms stored by the memory, a reference tomogram at the frame interval from a target tomogram included in the time series tomograms, the reference tomogram being generated prior to the target tomogram, and
generate a microstructure-extracted image based on the reference tomogram and the target tomogram; and

a display configured to display the microstructure-extracted image generated by the processing circuitry in a predetermined form.

2. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the memory stores the tomograms generated by the processing circuitry in association with the detected position; and
the processing circuitry is further configured to
determine a reference region on the reference tomogram,
determine a representative pixel value of the reference region, representing a characteristic of the reference region, and
generate the microstructure-extracted image by subtraction using the reference region representative pixel value and a pixel value of each of pixels of the target tomogram.

3. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the representative pixel value is any one of a maximum value, an average value, and a median value of a pixel value of each of pixels in the reference region.

4. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the processing circuitry is further configured to
generate a differential image by subtracting the representative pixel value from the pixel values of target pixels of the target tomogram, and
extract the microstructure, based on a variation in a signal intensity of pixel values between pixels in the differential image.

5. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a drive configured to move the ultrasonic probe at a predetermined velocity.

6. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the position detector is attached to or built into the ultrasonic probe.

7. An ultrasonic image acquiring method for ultrasonically scanning a test body and acquiring a tomogram, the method comprising:
transmitting ultrasound to the test body by an ultrasonic probe and receiving an echo signal from the test body;
detecting, by a position detector, a position of the ultrasonic probe at each of a plurality of timings;
generating a plurality of time series tomograms of the test body based on outputs from the ultrasonic probe, the time series tomograms corresponding to the plurality of timings, respectively;
storing the generated time series tomograms in a memory;
determining a frame interval based on an amount of movement calculated from positions detected by the position detector and a frame rate at which the time series tomograms are generated;
selecting, from among the time series tomograms stored by the memory, a reference tomogram at the frame interval from a target tomogram included in the time series tomograms, the reference tomogram being generated prior to the target tomogram;
generating a microstructure-extracted image based on the reference tomogram and the target tomogram; and
displaying the microstructure-extracted image.

Assignees

• Okamura Yoko
• Kamiyama Naohisa
• Toshiba Medical Sys Corp

Inventors

• Okamura Yoko
• Kamiyama Naohisa

Classifications

• A61B8/488

  involving Doppler signals · CPC title

• A61B8/14

  Echo-tomography · CPC title

• A61B8/5238

  for combining image data of patient, e.g. merging several images from different acquisition modes into one image · CPC title

• G01S7/52077 Primary

  with means for elimination of unwanted signals, e.g. noise or interference · CPC title

• G01S15/8918

  the array being linear · CPC title