JP4306066B2 - Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that obtains a two-dimensional image of an ultrasonic echo.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, an ultrasonic beam is transmitted into a living body to be inspected, a reflection is generated in the living body, and an ultrasonic echo is received. This ultrasonic beam is scanned in one cross section to perform an ultrasonic scan, echo distribution data in the cross section is obtained, and this is displayed as a two-dimensional ultrasonic image of the cross section, which is useful for diagnosis.
[0003]
In the conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, various scan parameters can be set, and an image corresponding to each of them can be obtained. That is, for example, various ultrasonic frequencies can be set as scan parameters. When a high frequency is set, an image with a high resolution can be obtained. On the other hand, since an ultrasonic wave with a high frequency is greatly attenuated, only a shallow portion image can be obtained. Conversely, when the frequency is set low, the resolution is lowered, but the ultrasonic waves with low frequency are not attenuated so much that a clear image can be obtained up to a deep portion. Since images with various properties can be obtained according to the scan parameters in this way, various scan parameters can be set and switched according to the patient's body shape and the properties of the image that the operator seems to be able to see more easily. It has become.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, with conventional ultrasound diagnostic devices, although it is possible to obtain desired images by setting various scan parameters, there are limitations on the types of images, and not all requests can be answered. Absent. In some cases, satisfactory image quality may not be obtained for the surgeon.
[0005]
In view of the above, the present invention provides an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that has been improved so as to obtain an image having an image quality obtained by arbitrarily combining image quality obtained with each of various scan parameters that can be set in the past. The purpose is to do.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, a probe that transmits an ultrasonic wave into a living body to be inspected and receives an ultrasonic echo in the living body, and a transmission signal to the probe are transmitted. A transmission / reception circuit for obtaining image data by processing a reception signal from the probe, and the transmission / reception circuit described above so that an ultrasonic scan defined by each of a plurality of set scan parameters is switched for each frame. Control circuit, frame buffer for storing one frame of image data from the transmission / reception circuit, and weighting of the stored image data for one frame and the current frame image data output from the transmission / reception circuit Image processing with multiple stages of inter-frame arithmetic units including arithmetic circuits for arithmetic operation connected in cascade. It is the distinctive feature is that the circuit is provided.
[0007]
The transmission / reception circuit is controlled by the control circuit, and the transmission / reception circuit performs ultrasonic scanning defined by each of the set plurality of scan parameters while being switched for each frame. Therefore, image data with different scan parameters are sequentially output from the transmission / reception circuit for each frame. The output image data is stored by the frame buffer for one frame. The stored image data for one frame is weighted and added by the weighting operation circuit with the image data output from the transmission / reception circuit in the current frame. Therefore, an image obtained by weighted addition of the images of the two scan parameters is obtained. The inter-frame arithmetic units for one stage including the frame buffer and the weighting arithmetic circuit are cascaded in a plurality of stages. Therefore, in the next stage, image data obtained by weighting and adding the image data of the current frame to the image data obtained by weighting and adding the images of the first two scan parameters can be obtained. In this way, it is possible to obtain an image obtained by blending a number of different scan parameter images corresponding to the number of cascaded stages. Therefore, it is possible to obtain an image with an image quality that can be obtained by arbitrarily combining the image quality obtained with each of the various scan parameters that can be set, and the types of image quality can be expanded at once. You will be able to respond.
[0008]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, an ultrasonic probe 11 is pressed against the surface of a living body 10 to be inspected. The ultrasonic probe 11 has a function of transmitting an ultrasonic beam into the living body 10 and receiving an ultrasonic echo in the living body 10. Specifically, for example, it is composed of a transducer array in which a large number of ultrasonic transducer elements are arranged. A transmission / reception circuit 12 is connected to the probe 11.
[0009]
The transmission / reception circuit 12 transmits a transmission signal to the probe 11 to transmit an ultrasonic beam from the probe 11 into the living body 10, and processes a reception signal of the ultrasonic echo in the living body 10 received by the probe 11 to generate image data. It has the function to obtain. At the time of transmission, by controlling the phase of the drive signal sent to each element of the probe 11, the direction and focus of the transmission beam as a synthesized wave of ultrasonic waves generated from each element are determined. At the time of reception, the direction and focus of a received beam as a synthesized wave are determined by phase control of received signals from each element of the probe 11.
[0010]
By electronic control of the ultrasonic beam at the time of transmission and reception, one cross section in the living body 10 can be scanned with the ultrasonic beam, and image data representing a two-dimensional distribution image of the ultrasonic echo of the cross section. Can be obtained.
[0011]
The transmission / reception circuit 12 is controlled by a CPU 13, and a setting device 14 is connected to the CPU 13 so that various settings can be made. When an arbitrary scan parameter is set by the setting device 14, the transmission / reception circuit 12 is controlled by the CPU 13 so that an ultrasonic scan is performed in accordance with the scan parameter. The image data output from the transmission / reception circuit 12 is sent to the image display device 16 via the image processing circuit 15, and an ultrasonic image is displayed.
[0012]
Here, description will be made assuming that three types of scan parameters A, B, and C are set by the setting device 14 and an image obtained by blending these three types of images A, B, and C is obtained. The image processing circuit 15 is a combination of frame buffer memories 51, 52,... Capable of storing one frame of image data output from the transmission / reception circuit 12, and weighting arithmetic circuits 61, 62,. It consists of inter-processing units cascaded in multiple stages. Here, since it is assumed that three types of images are blended, they are cascade-connected in two stages.
[0013]
Note that the number of stages to be cascaded corresponds to the number of types of images to be blended (the number of set scan parameters), and if four types of images are blended, the number of stages is cascaded in three stages to form five types of images. If the blend is, cascade connection in 4 stages.
[0014]
The transmission / reception circuit 12 is controlled by the CPU 13, and ultrasonic scans are sequentially performed while the scans defined by the scan parameters A, B, and C are dynamically switched for each frame. That is, if image data based on the scan parameter A is obtained from the transmission / reception circuit 12 in the first frame, the image data based on the scan parameter B is based on the scan parameter C in the third frame. Image data is obtained and this is repeated.
[0015]
The image data of the scan parameter A of the first first frame is stored in the frame buffer memory 51. When the image data of the scan parameter B is obtained in the next second frame, it is sent to the frame buffer memory 51 and the weight calculation circuit 61. In the weighting calculation circuit 61, the image data of the scan parameter B and the image of the scan parameter A stored in the frame buffer memory 51 are weighted and added with a weight of 1: 1. The weighted and added image data (A + B) / 2 is stored in the frame buffer memory 52. In the frame buffer memory 51, the image data A previously stored is read and the image data B is stored.
[0016]
When the image data of the scan parameter C is obtained in the third frame, the image data of the image C is added to the image data A and B stored in the frame buffer memory 52 in the weighting calculation circuit 62 (A + B) / 2. Then, weighted addition is performed with a weight of 1: 2. Thus, image data (A + B + C) / 3 obtained by adding the images A, B, and C with a weight of 1/3 is obtained from the weighting calculation circuit 62, and this is sent to the image display device 16 and displayed.
[0017]
In the third frame, (A + B) / 2 data is read from the frame buffer memory 52, and image data output from the weight calculation circuit 61 is stored in the frame buffer memory 52. In the third frame, image data C from the transmission / reception circuit 12 and image data B read from the frame memory buffer 51 are input to the weighting operation circuit 61, and the output is (B + C) / 2. Therefore, this is stored in the frame buffer memory 52. In the third frame, the image data B is read from the frame buffer memory 51 and the image data C is written to the frame buffer memory 51.
[0018]
In the next fourth frame, the image data A is output from the transmission / reception circuit 12, so that it is stored in the frame buffer memory 51, sent to the weighting operation circuits 61, 62, and read from the frame buffer memories 51, 52. And the added image data A and image data (B + C) / 2. The output image data (B + C + A) / 3 of the weighting operation circuit 62 is output and displayed on the image display device 16, and the output image data (C + A) / 2 of the weighting operation circuit 61 is stored in the frame buffer memory 52.
[0019]
This operation is repeated, and the image display device 16 displays images in the order of images (A + B + C) / 3, (B + C + A) / 3, (C + A + B) / 3, and (A + B + C) / 3 for each frame. For this reason, the image display device 16 combines the image of the specific scan parameter obtained in the current frame and the other two types of scan parameter images obtained in the immediately preceding two frames with equal weights. The image will always be displayed.
[0020]
Therefore, a composite image of images obtained with three types of scan parameters can be obtained. This composite image is different from any one scan parameter image and is an image having a new feature. Therefore, the types of image quality can be increased to meet the various demands of the surgeon. At the same time, it is possible to obtain an image in which the respective defects of the scan parameters A, B, and C are complementarily compensated, and improvement in image quality such as improvement in contrast resolution can be desired.
[0021]
In addition, this invention is not limited to said embodiment, A concrete structure etc. can be variously changed. For example, the number of cascade connection stages of the inter-frame arithmetic units obtained by combining the frame buffer memories 51, 52,... And the weighting arithmetic circuits 61, 62,. It can be increased or decreased according to the number of types of images to be performed. Further, the weighting coefficients in the weighting arithmetic circuits 61, 62,... Can be changed according to the number of stages.
[0022]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to obtain an image synthesized by combining images based on scan parameters that can be set with a very simple configuration. It is possible to meet various demands of users, and it is also possible to obtain an image that complements each defect of each scan parameter image complementarily, and it is also expected to improve image quality such as improved contrast resolution .
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Living body 11 Ultrasonic probe 12 Transmission / reception circuit 13 CPU
14 Setting device 15 Image processing circuit 16 Image display device 51, 52 Frame buffer memory 61, 62 Weighting operation circuit

Claims (1)

A probe that transmits ultrasonic waves into a living body to be inspected and receives ultrasonic echoes in the living body, a transmission / reception circuit that sends a transmission signal to the probe and processes a reception signal from the probe to obtain image data; A control circuit for controlling the transmission / reception circuit and image data from the transmission / reception circuit for one frame so that an ultrasonic scan specified by each of the set plurality of scan parameters is switched every frame. A plurality of stages of inter-frame operation units for one stage including a frame buffer for storing one frame and an arithmetic circuit for weighting the stored image data for one frame and the current frame image data output from the transmission / reception circuit An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: a connected image processing circuit.

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