Ultrasonic probe and ultrasonic imaging device

Abstract

An ultrasonic probe that is pressed to a subject to obtain an elasticity image. The probe has a contact surface used for contact with the subject and is orthogonal to the direction of the pressing and has an automatic pressing means or a manual pressing means. The automatic pressing means is adapted for moving the contact surface in a pressing direction to press a to-be-imaged portion of the subject at a predetermined pressing force, and manual pressing means presses the portion by a manual force. Using the ultrasonic prove having the automatic pressing means or the manual pressing means enables a pressing stage to be automatically or manually moved in a vertical fixed direction at a desired speed, and as a result elasticity image data with high image quality can be obtained at a desired time. Further, repeatability of pressing operation can be retained, which enables a problem of the quality of an elasticity image being dependent on an inspector to be eliminated.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to an ultrasonic imaging device that uses ultrasonic waves to obtain a tomographic image of an imaging object in the subject, and in particular to an ultrasonic imaging device that can calculate the distortion of each point on the image based on a set of ultrasonic receiving signal frame data arranged in time series And elastic modulus, an ultrasonic imaging device that displays an elastic image that quantitatively expresses the hardness or softness of living tissue. Background technique [0002] A general ultrasonic imaging device in the past is composed of: an ultrasonic transmission and reception control mechanism, which controls the transmission and reception of ultrasonic waves; an ultrasonic transmission and reception mechanism, which transmits and receives ultrasonic waves to the object to be inspected; Reflected echo signals are repeatedly obtained at a predetermined cycle tomographic image data of a subject includ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0006] However, in the conventional elastic imaging method using an ultrasonic imaging device, since the tissue of interest is compressed by hand, it is difficult to achieve a compression speed suitable for high image quality at all times during a series of compressions. Compression continues within the range, and since the compression speed at each moment is not constant, the resulting output multiple elastic image data is discontinuous in time, and it becomes an image with jumps between frames of the elastic image data, making it difficult to image diagnosis

[0007] Furthermore, hand vibration is unavoidable during the compression process, and the direction of compression changes at various moments, which is also the cause of the discontinuity of the above-mentioned continuously obtained elastic image data.

Moreover, due to the above reasons, the quality of elastic images inevitably depends on the skill of the examiner.

Images