Ultrasonic diagnosis device and transmission/reception method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9895137-B2
Application number	US-201414413174-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2014
Priority date	Mar 5, 2013
Publication date	Feb 20, 2018
Grant date	Feb 20, 2018

Abstract

There is provided an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of measuring hardness information of a subject with high time resolution and spatial resolution.
The apparatus is provided with a ultrasonic probe 1 and a displacement generation unit 10 configured to displace an inside of a subject and is configured to transmit an ultrasonic beam for displacement detection to a plurality of detection positions of the subject from the ultrasonic probe 1 , and to detect a shear wave velocity based on the displacement at the plurality of detection positions in a control unit 3 by using a reflection signal detected in a detection unit 20 , thereby outputting hardness information of the subject. The ultrasonic beam for displacement detection is transmitted to one of the plurality of detection positions. A waveform analysis unit 26 of the control unit 3 is configured to perform a change control of analyzing a shear wave resulting from the displacement to thus transmit the ultrasonic beam for displacement detection to another position of the plurality of detection positions. Thereby, it is possible to measure the shear wave velocity with high time resolution and spatial resolution, so that it is possible to obtain the hardness information of the subject with high precision.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising:
an ultrasonic probe;
a displacement generator that displaces an inside of a subject, and generates a shear wave;
a detector that transmits an ultrasonic beam from the ultrasonic probe to a first detection position at a high time resolution of the subject and receives a first reflection signal, detects a first displacement at the first detection position on a basis of the first reflection signal, transmits the ultrasonic beam to a second detection position farther than the first detection position on a basis of a position where the shear wave is generated, and receives a second reflection signal, and detects a second displacement at the second detection position on a basis of the second reflection signal; and
a controller that calculates a velocity of the shear wave on a basis of the first displacement and the second displacement, and outputs hardness information of the subject,
wherein the detector transmits the ultrasonic beam to the second detection position in response to receiving a signal, from the controller, which designates the second detection position,
wherein the controller sends the signal, to the detector, which designates the second detection position in response to the controller calculating the first displacement at the first detection position and detecting a peak value of the first displacement by signal processing,
wherein the controller dynamically switches the first detection position at which the first displacement is detected to the second detection position at which the second displacement is detected in response to an analysis result of a first time at which a displacement of tissue of the subject caused by the shear wave peaks at the first detection position,
wherein the dynamically switching the first detection position at which the first displacement is detected to the second detection position at which the second displacement is detected includes the detector switching a detection time at which the ultrasonic beam for displacement detection is transmitted to each of the detection positions in response to the analysis result,
wherein the controller switches a plurality of detection positions by utilizing an output of the detector,
wherein the controller sets a detection time at the plurality of detection positions on the basis of the output of the detector,
wherein the controller sets a second time at which the ultrasonic beam is transmitted to the second detection position dependent on the analysis result of the shear wave at the first detection position by the detector, and
wherein a starting time of the transmitting the ultrasonic beam and the receiving first reflection signal to/from a detection position at or after an n-th detection position is determined by the controller by utilizing a peak detection estimation time estimated from a detection result of a peak of the shear wave detected at a detection position before the n-th detection position, wherein n>1.

2. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the detector alters the second detection position, in either cases of:
wherein the peak value of the first displacement fails to be detected at the first detection position, or
wherein the first displacement does not exceed a predetermined threshold.

3. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller calculates a group velocity of the shear wave on a basis of a peak value or a zero cross value of the shear wave, and outputs the hardness information on a basis of the group velocity.

4. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller calculates a phase velocity and a viscosity of the shear wave on a basis of spectrum values of the shear wave, and outputs the hardness information on a basis of the phase velocity and the viscosity.

5. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller sets an interval of detection positions.

6. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an inputter that sets as the hardness information a group velocity of the shear wave or a phase velocity and a viscosity of the shear wave.

7. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an inputter that sets an interval of detection positions.

8. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a display that displays the hardness information.

9. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 8 , wherein a standard deviation or a correlation function of waveforms of two or more shear waves is displayed on the display as a degree of reliability of the hardness information.

10. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the display displays a pulse repetition time (PRT) or pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of the ultrasonic beam.

11. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the detector detects a traveling wave or reflected wave of the shear wave.

12. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the displacement generator displaces the subject by a mechanical driving or emission of another ultrasonic beam.

13. A method of transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic beam, comprising:
displacing an inside of a subject to generate a shear wave;
transmitting an ultrasonic beam from an ultrasonic probe to a first detection position at a high time resolution of the subject and receiving a first reflection signal;
detecting a first displacement at the first detection position on a basis of the first reflection signal;
dynamically switching the first detection position to a second detection position of the subject to which the ultrasonic beam is transmitted to, subsequent to the first detection position, in response to an analysis result of a first time at which a displacement of tissue of the subject caused by the shear wave peaks at the first detection position, wherein the dynamically switching the first detection position at which the first displacement is detected to the second detection position at which the second displacement is detected includes switching a detection time at which the ultrasonic beam for displacement detection is transmitted to each of the detection positions in response to the analysis result;
transmitting the ultrasonic beam to the second detection position and receiving a second reflection signal;
detecting a second displacement at the second detection position on a basis of the second reflection signal; and
calculating a velocity of the shear wave on a basis of the first displacement and the second displacement, thereby calculating hardness information of the subject;
switching a plurality of detection positions by utilizing an output of a detector,
setting a detection time at the plurality of detection positions by utilizing the output of the detector,
setting a second time at which the ultrasonic beam is transmitted to the second detection position dependent on the analysis result of the shear wave at the first detection position, and
determining a starting time of the transmitting the ultrasonic beam and the receiving first reflection signal to/from a detection position at or after an n-th detection position by utilizing a peak detection estimation time estimated from a detection result of a peak of the shear wave detected at a detection position before the n-th detection position, wherein n>1.

14. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the detector sets a third detection position farther than the second detection position on a basis of a position where the shear wave is generated on a basis of an amount of the second dis

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Tabaru Marie
• Yoshikawa Hideki
• Asami Rei
• Hashiba Kunio
• Masuzawa Hiroshi

Classifications

• G01S7/52042

  determining elastic properties of the propagation medium or of the reflective target (diagnostic techniques involving the measurement of strain A61B8/485) · CPC title

• A61B8/463

  characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display · CPC title

• A61B8/5207

  involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data, e.g. for generating an image · 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

• A61B8/08

  Clinical applications (A61B8/02, A61B8/04, A61B8/06 take precedence) · CPC title