JP2965664B2 - Blood flow image projection display using ultrasonic pulse Doppler method - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a blood flow image projection display device, and more particularly, to a blood flow displaying a projected image of a blood flow in a three-dimensional region in a living body using an ultrasonic pulse Doppler method. The present invention relates to an image projection display device.

2. Description of the Related Art In the case of diagnosing a circulatory disease, angiography is performed in order to know the running state of blood flow.

In the angiography, for example, a blood vessel is injected with an angiographic agent that absorbs X-rays in blood, and the living body is irradiated with X-rays, thereby obtaining a blood vessel (blood flow) projection image of a desired region in the living body. is there. Diagnosis of diseases such as aneurysm and vascular stenosis is performed based on the X-ray photograph obtained by the angiography.

Meanwhile, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using an ultrasonic Doppler method is known as an apparatus capable of imaging a running state of a blood flow in a living body without causing any pain to the living body. As is well known, this ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus transmits a continuous wave or a pulse wave ultrasonic wave from outside the living body to the living body, receives a reflected wave that has undergone a Doppler shift in the living body, and receives the reflected wave. The Doppler information (for example, blood flow velocity information) is extracted from the waved signal and imaged.

In recent years, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of real-time display using an autocorrelation method to obtain the Doppler information has been put into practical use (for example, see Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-44494).

Therefore, by using such an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, it is possible to diagnose the running state of the blood flow described above, and to obtain a blood flow image without giving any pain or discomfort to the living body. I have.

In recent years, an ultrasonic probe for capturing three-dimensional data for capturing data of a three-dimensional region in a living body has been developed. According to such a probe, an ultrasonic probe for capturing a three-dimensional region in a living body has been developed. (Including, for example, its three-dimensional position information) (for example, Japanese Patent Application Nos. 1-64328 and 1-324957 proposed by the present applicant earlier).
No.).

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using the above-described ultrasonic Doppler method, the displayed image is a two-dimensional cross section in the living body, and therefore, the three-dimensional There is a problem that the running state of the blood flow in the area cannot be grasped.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnosis using an ultrasonic pulse Doppler method capable of forming a projection image of a blood flow in a three-dimensional region in a living body. It is to provide a device.

Means for Solving the Problems To achieve the above object, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using an ultrasonic pulse Doppler method according to the present invention transmits an ultrasonic pulse to a three-dimensional region in a living body, A transducer for receiving a reflected wave from the body, a Doppler analysis circuit for extracting Doppler information from a received signal from the transducer, and three-dimensional data for storing the Doppler information in a three-dimensional region in the living body A memory, a projection path calculating means for calculating a projection path for forming a projection image of a blood flow from a desired direction with respect to the three-dimensional region, and a Doppler information stored from the three-dimensional data memory for the projection path. And a circuit that forms a projected image of the blood flow in the three-dimensional region using the read Doppler information, and whether there is Doppler information of a predetermined value or more on a projection path. Judge And a display for displaying a projected image of the formed blood flow, and a blood flow projected image based on Doppler information from a desired direction can be formed. And

[Operation] According to the above configuration, an ultrasonic pulse is transmitted / received by the transmitter / receiver, and the received signal is subjected to Doppler analysis circuit to extract Doppler information and to store it in the three-dimensional data memory.

Then, the stored Doppler information is formed into a projection image corresponding to a three-dimensional region in a living body by a projection image forming circuit.

Therefore, the blood flow image can be formed into a two-dimensional image regardless of the direction of travel of the blood vessel.

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, preferred examples of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using the ultrasonic pulse Doppler method according to the present invention.

As is well known, the ultrasonic pulse Doppler method transmits a periodic ultrasonic pulse into a living body and obtains, for example, a flow velocity of a blood flow or the like from a Doppler shift which is a difference between a transmission frequency and a reception frequency. is there. The advantage is that it has a distance resolution because a periodic ultrasonic pulse is used.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a transducer, and in this embodiment, a three-dimensional data capturing ultrasonic probe having an angle detector for detecting a transmission angle of an ultrasonic beam into a living body is used. Have been.

A transmission signal having a predetermined repetition cycle is supplied from the transmission circuit 12 to the transducer 10.

The transmitting circuit 12 and the transducer 10 are controlled by a three-dimensional scanning control circuit 14.

The received signal from the transducer 10 is sent to the receiving circuit 16.

The receiving circuit 16 includes a high-frequency amplifier, a detector, an A / D converter, and the like. In the present embodiment, the received signals are subjected to quadrature detection using reference signals having phases different from each other by 90 °.

The received signal from the receiving circuit 16 is sent to a Doppler analyzing circuit 18 where Doppler information is extracted. Here, in the present embodiment, the Doppler analysis circuit 18 performs the Doppler analysis based on the autocorrelation method described above, and thereby obtains the blood flow velocity and the like.

In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes a three-dimensional data memory for storing Doppler information extracted by the Doppler analysis circuit 18. This storage is performed in accordance with the three-dimensional region in the living body that is captured by the transducer 10. In the present embodiment, the address of the memory 20 corresponds to each position in the living body.

FIG. 3 shows the concept of a three-dimensional region V in a living body stored in the three-dimensional data memory 20, that is, taken in by the transducer 10. put it here,
(A) shows a region where, for example, two-dimensionally arranged transducers are scanned by electronic scanning, and (B) shows a region where a linearly arranged transducer is scanned by sector scanning. Further, FIG. 3C shows a sector-shaped region which is taken in by scanning one transducer two-dimensionally in a sector or by scanning two-dimensionally arranged transducers in an electronic sector. In (B) and (C), since a sector scan is performed, distortion occurs when a two-dimensional projected image is simply formed.
The correction is automatically made in the three-dimensional data memory 20 so as to be equivalent to (A).

In FIG. 1, Doppler information stored in a three-dimensional data memory 20 is read and sent to a projection image forming circuit 22.

As shown in FIG. 2, the projection image forming circuit 22 includes a projection processing unit 26 and a projection calculation unit 28 including a projection path calculation unit 30 and a projection point calculation unit 32.

The principle of forming a projected image in the projected image forming circuit 22 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4A shows a data capturing area V captured by the transducer 14. A projection of the data capturing area V from a predetermined direction is shown in FIG.
It is a projection image shown in FIG. That is, for example, what is projected from the projection start point S along a path along the direction of the ultrasonic beam is the projection point P in the projection image, and the projection path L is between P and S.

The projection path calculation unit 30 shown in FIG. 2 calculates each address of the three-dimensional data memory 20 corresponding to the projection path L. Further, the projection point calculation unit 32 calculates an address of a frame memory 24 described later corresponding to the position of the projection point P.

Then, the projection processing unit 26 adds the Doppler information sequentially read out from the three-dimensional data memory 20 along the projection path L, and sends the result to a predetermined address of the frame memory 24. Here, the projection processing unit 26 performs scalar addition of all Doppler information on the projection path L as described above in order to perform luminance modulation or color display according to the speed of the blood flow. Naturally, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it is preferable to determine whether there is a blood flow having Doppler information of a predetermined value or more on the projection path L. Rapid processing is possible.

Therefore, the three-dimensional data memory 20 shown in FIG.
Each Doppler information in the data capturing area V of FIG. 4A is stored, and these information are
The projected image shown in FIG. 2B is formed, and this projected image is stored in the frame memory 24.

The projected image stored in the frame memory 24 is displayed on the display 34. An example of the display here is shown in FIG.

Note that, as described above, it is preferable that the display of the projected image be a display that is easily recognizable, such as changing the luminance according to each blood flow velocity, changing the hue, and the like. A luminance change or a hue change may be provided according to the length of the projection path L as described above. In the present invention, since the pulse Doppler method is used, a distance resolution is provided, and display according to such a depth is possible.

In addition, since the above-described projection path L stores each Doppler information including its three-dimensional position information, it can be calculated at a desired angle from a desired direction, and various projection images can be obtained. Is possible. Therefore, for example, a blood flow projection image can be obtained from an angle that cannot be obtained by conventional X-ray photography, and the diagnostic accuracy in medical treatment can be significantly improved.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using the ultrasonic pulse Doppler method according to the present invention, a projected image of a blood flow can be obtained quickly and easily without imposing any burden on a living body. Therefore, there is an effect that the accuracy of diagnosis in medical treatment can be significantly improved.

Also, by performing projection image formation from a desired angle to a desired range, various blood flow projection images can be formed, for example, to discover a thrombus or a blood circulation disorder that could not be found conventionally. Has the beneficial effect that is possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using the ultrasonic pulse Doppler method according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a projection image forming circuit, and FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a data capturing area, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a data capturing area and a projection image, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a blood flow projection image. 10 Transceiver 16 Reception circuit 18 Doppler analysis circuit 20 Three-dimensional data memory 22 Projection image forming circuit 24 Frame memory 26 Projection processing unit 28 Projection calculation unit 30 … Projection path calculator 32 …… Projection point calculator 34 …… Display

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A transducer for transmitting an ultrasonic pulse to a three-dimensional region in a living body and receiving a reflected wave from the living body, and a Doppler for extracting Doppler information from a signal received from the transducer. An analysis circuit, a three-dimensional data memory for storing the Doppler information in the three-dimensional region in the living body, and calculating a projection path for forming a projection image of a blood flow from a desired direction with respect to the three-dimensional region. A projection path calculation unit, reading out the Doppler information stored from the three-dimensional data memory along the projection path, and forming a projection image of the blood flow in the three-dimensional region using the read Doppler information. A projection image forming circuit that determines whether there is Doppler information of a predetermined value or more on a projection path and adds the Doppler information, and a display that displays a projection image of the formed blood flow. Vessel, and Blood flow image projection display apparatus using the ultrasonic pulse Doppler method, characterized in that to form a blood flow projected image based on the Doppler information from the direction.