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Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and signal processing method thereof

Inactive Publication Date: 2011-03-31
FUJIFILM CORP
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013]The presently disclosed subject matter has been accomplished in view of such circumstances as described above. An object of the presently disclosed subject matter therefore is to provide an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and the signal processing method thereof capable of correctly determining an ambient sound velocity at each level of pixels or line images constituting an ultrasound image, and constructing a high-precision ultrasound image.
[0015]In the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to the first aspect, the region-of-interest setting device sets a region of interest within the object; the transmission focus instruction device causes the ultrasound probe to bring the ultrasound waves into transmission focus on the region of interest; the set sound velocity specification device specifies a plurality of set sound velocities used to perform reception focusing on the ultrasound detection signal from the region of interest; the focus index calculation device calculates the focus index of the ultrasound detection signal for each of the plurality of set sound velocities by performing the reception focusing; and the ambient sound velocity determination device determines the ambient sound velocity of the region of interest on the basis of the focus index for each of the plurality of set sound velocities, thereby correctly determining an ambient sound velocity at each level of pixels or line images constituting an ultrasound image and enabling the construction of a high-precision ultrasound image.
[0031]As has been described heretofore, according to the presently disclosed subject matter, there is provided an advantageous effect of being able to correctly determine an ambient sound velocity at each level of pixels or line images constituting an ultrasound image, and constructing a high-precision ultrasound image.

Problems solved by technology

Thus, it is not possible to appropriately correct the set sound velocity to, for example, an ambient sound velocity at each level of pixels or line images constituting the ultrasound image.
Accordingly, it is not possible to construct a high-precision ultrasound image.

Method used

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  • Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and signal processing method thereof

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first embodiment

[0044]FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to a first embodiment of the presently disclosed subject matter. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 transmits ultrasound beams from an ultrasound probe 300 to a object OBJ, receives ultrasound beams reflected by the object OBJ (hereinafter referred to as ultrasound echoes), and creates and displays an ultrasound image from a detection signal of the ultrasound echoes.

[0045]A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 100 controls the respective blocks of the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus 10 according to an operating input from an operating input unit 200.

[0046]The operating input unit 200 is an input device adapted to accept an operating input from an operator and includes a console 202 and a pointing device 204. The console 202 includes a keyboard for accepting an input of textual information (for example, patient information), a display mode changeover button for switching a disp...

second embodiment

[0088]A second embodiment is the same in configuration as the first embodiment and differs therefrom only in processing at the data analysis unit. Therefore, only the difference will be described.

[0089]FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating flow of processing by a data analysis unit according to the second embodiment of the presently disclosed subject matter. In addition, FIGS. 9 and 10 are drawings used to explain the processing of FIG. 8.

[0090]As illustrated in FIG. 8, a data analysis unit 700 sets the starting number Nst and the ending number Nend of a parameter N by a region-of-interest setting unit 701, following processing in step S10 (step S11). Then, the data analysis unit 700 sets the starting number Nst in the parameter N (step S31), following processing in step S30.

[0091]In the present embodiment, when an operator specifies a region of interest for RF image data obtained by, for example, a line-by-line method, the data analysis unit 700 causes the region-of-interest setting u...

third embodiment

[0104]A third embodiment is configured to utilize only a frequency spectrum shape, without including image intensity, in order to determine an ambient sound velocity from a line image.

[0105]That is, by determining an ambient sound velocity only from a spatial frequency spectrum shape in an azimuthal direction, without including image intensity, for the abovementioned line image (RF image data created by executing reception focusing assumptive of point reflection), it is possible to determine the ambient sound velocity of a speckle more precisely, compared with a conventional method for determining the ambient sound velocity from a line-by-line image.

[0106]Hereinafter, this mechanism will be described in detail.

[0107]In general, the point reflection (PSF) of an ultrasound image involves a variation in the characteristics of both “image intensity” and “frequency spectrum shape,” depending on a set sound velocity, as has been already described using FIG. 7. Hence, the ambient sound vel...

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Abstract

The presently disclosed subject matter is intended to correctly determine an ambient sound velocity at each level of pixels or line images constituting an ultrasound image, and construct a high-precision ultrasound image. A region-of-interest setting unit sets a region of interest on an ultrasound image. A transmission focus control unit gives a transmission focus instruction, so that a transmitting circuit performs transmission focusing on the region of interest. A set sound velocity specification unit specifies a set sound velocity used to perform reception focusing on RF data. A focus index calculation unit performs reception focusing on the RF data for each of a plurality of set sound velocities to calculate the focus index of the RF data. An ambient sound velocity determination unit determines the ambient sound velocity of the region of interest on the basis of the focus index for each of the plurality of set sound velocities.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The presently disclosed subject matter relates to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and the signal processing method thereof for taking and displaying ultrasound images of a region under diagnosis of an object by utilizing ultrasound waves, and more particularly, to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and the signal processing method thereof for correcting the ambient sound velocity of the region under diagnosis.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]Conventionally, an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus for taking and displaying ultrasound images of a region under diagnosis of an object by utilizing ultrasound waves has been composed of a probe, an ultrasound transmitter / receiver unit, an image processing circuit, a digital scan converter (DSC), an image display unit, and the, like.[0005]In such a conventional ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, an ultrasound velocity value set for the apparatus as a whole is fixed to a...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): A61B8/14
CPCA61B8/08G01N29/0654G01N29/4463G01N2291/02475A61B8/4488A61B8/5207A61B8/145A61B8/4444G01N2291/0289
Inventor KATSUYAMA, KIMITO
Owner FUJIFILM CORP
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