JPH02167149A - Ultrasonic doppler diagnostic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform the alteration of a sampling point and the reproduction of Doppler sound when the past blood flow data is displayed by mounting a memory for storing ultrasonic Doppler shift data prior to sampling and a selec tion circuit for alternatively transmitting the output of said memory and that of a phase detection circuit to a sample holding circuit. CONSTITUTION:Doppler shift data collected heretofore is stored in a memory 32 and all of the data of the Doppler transmitting beam of a living body P are present and, therefore, the alteration of a sampling point in a sample holding circuit 25 becomes possible in the reproduction of the past blood flow data based on the memory content of said memory 32. That is, when the sampling point in a depth direction is altered, the data corresponding to a new sampling point is transmitted to an FFT 28 through a filter circuit 25 and an A/D con verter 27 and further transmitted to a normal/reverse separation circuit 33 through the filter circuit 26. As a result, the blood flow pattern at the sampling point due to alteration is displayed on a CRT display 30 and the Doppler sound at that time is outputted from a speaker 34.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Object of the Invention (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention is directed to receiving reflected components of ultrasound waves transmitted toward a living body from the living body, and receiving the received signal (echo signal). The present invention relates to an ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic device that processes @) to obtain blood flow information.

(Conventional technology) FIG. 3 shows a conventional ultrasound Doppler device.

Reference numeral 1 denotes an ultrasonic probe that sends and receives ultrasonic pulses toward a living body P, and this probe 1 is connected to an electronic scanning section 2 . This electronic scanning section 2 performs electronic scanning of ultrasonic waves, and a phase detection circuit 3 is arranged at the rear stage of this electronic scanning section 2. This phase detection circuit 3 phase-detects the ultrasonic reception echo signal to obtain ultrasonic Doppler shift information, and the obtained Doppler shift information is
The signal is sampled by a sample hold circuit 4 arranged at a subsequent stage. The output of the sample and hold circuit 4 has clutter components removed by a filter circuit 5, is converted into a digital signal by an A/D converter 6, and is then taken into an FFT (fast Fourier transform processor) 7, where it is converted into a digital signal. The frequency is now analyzed. This frequency analysis result is sent to D via switch 8.
It is taken into SC (digital scan converter) 9,
After being scan-converted, the image is sent to the CRT display 10 and displayed as a blood flow pattern. Further, the output of the FFT 7 is written into a memory 11, and by changing the path using the switch 8, the contents stored in the memory 11 can be displayed on a CRT display 10 as required. Furthermore, the output of the filter circuit 5 is also taken into the forward/reverse separation circuit 12, where it separates the forward flow (blood flow approaching the ultrasound probe) component and the reverse flow (blood flow away from the ultrasound probe) component of the blood flow. Separation takes place;
The output drives the speaker 13 disposed at the subsequent stage, and A-Dio output of Doppler sound is performed.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) According to the conventional device, since the output of the FFT 7 is routed to the memory 11, the contents stored in the memory 11 are transferred to the DSC 9 by switching the path of the switch 8. Then, the past blood flow information, that is, the blood flow pattern can be CR
It can be displayed on the T-display 10.

However, the sampling points of the blood flow pattern to be displayed have already been determined by the sample hold circuit 4, and only the blood flow information at the sampling points are stored in the memory 11. Even if you want to make some changes, we will not be able to respond to your request.

Further, the Doppler sound output by the speaker 13 is only real-time output, and the Doppler sound cannot be reproduced as past blood flow information.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus that can change the sampling point even when past blood flow information is displayed and can also reproduce the Doppler sound at that time.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a phase detection circuit that detects the phase of an echo signal obtained by transmitting and receiving ultrasound to and from a living body to obtain Doppler shift information of the ultrasound, and a phase detection circuit that obtains Doppler shift information of the ultrasound, and In an ultrasound Doppler diagnostic apparatus that has a sample hold circuit that samples information, and obtains blood flow information of the living body based on the output of the sample hold circuit and uses it for diagnosis, the ultrasound Doppler shift information before sampling is stored. It is necessary to include a memory and a selection circuit that selectively transmits the output of the memory and the output of the phase detection circuit to the sample and hold circuit.

(Function) According to the above configuration, ultrasound Doppler shift information before sampling is stored in the memory. In this way, in the present invention, since the ultrasound Doppler shift information before sampling is stored in the memory, past blood flow information can be stored by transmitting this memory output to the sample hold circuit via the selection circuit. It is possible to reproduce it. Moreover, since the information before sampling is stored in the memory, it is possible to change the sampling point when reproducing past blood flow information, and it is also possible to reproduce Doppler sound as past blood flow information. .

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically explained with reference to Examples.

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the invention.

21 is an ultrasonic probe that sends and receives ultrasonic pulses toward the living body P; 22 is an electronic scanning unit that performs electronic scanning of ultrasonic waves via this ultrasonic probe 21;
is a phase detection circuit that performs phase detection of ultrasonic reception echoes. The output of this phase detection circuit 23 is converted into a digital signal by an A/D converter 31 and then stored in a memory 32.
It is now written to . A D/A converter 35 is arranged after this memory 32, and the output of the memory 32)
is converted into an analog signal by this D/A converter 35. Further, 24 is a selection circuit that selectively transmits the output of the memory 32 converted into an analog signal by the D/A converter 35 and the output of the phase detection circuit 23 to the sample and hold circuit 25. A filter circuit 26 for removing clutter components from the sampling output is arranged downstream of the sample and hold circuit 25, and the output of this filter circuit is A/D converted by an A/D converter 27 and then subjected to FFT ( The signal is taken into a fast Fourier transform processing unit (fast Fourier transform processing unit) 28, where frequency analysis is performed. This frequency analysis result is sent to a CRT display 30 via a DSC (digital scan converter) 29.

Further, the output of the filter circuit 26 is taken into a forward/reverse separation circuit 33, where the forward flow component and the backward flow component of the blood are separated, and the speaker 34 is driven by the output of this separation circuit.

Although not shown in the drawing, B-mode image formation information of the living body P is transmitted from the electronic scanning unit 22 to the DSC 29 and displayed on the CRT display 30 together with the blood flow pattern.

Next, the operation of the embodiment device configured as described above will be explained.

Normally, the output of the phase detection circuit 23 is selected by the selection circuit 24, transmitted to the sample and hold circuit 25, and sampled at a predetermined timing. Therefore,
In this case, similar to the conventional device, Doppler sound is output from the speaker 34, and the frequency analysis result by the FFT 28 is displayed on the CRT display 30 (blood flow pattern display).

On the other hand, the output jy of the phase detection circuit 23 is converted into a digital signal by the A/D converter 31, and then transmitted to the memory 32 and stored therein.

When reproducing past blood flow information, the selection circuit 24 selects the output of the D/A converter 35 and transmits it to the sample and hold circuit 25.

The sampling result is then transmitted to the forward/reverse separation circuit 33 and the A/D converter 27 via the filter circuit 26,
Similarly to the above, Doppler sound is output from the speaker 34, and a blood flow pattern is displayed on the CRT display 30.

Here, the Doppler shift information collected so far is stored in the memory 32, and this information is the information before sampling, that is, all the information of the Doppler transmission beam of the living body P exists. Therefore, in reproducing past blood flow information based on the contents stored in the memory 32, it is possible to change the sampling point in the sample hold circuit 25. That is, if the sampling point is changed in the depth direction, information corresponding to the new sampling point will be transmitted to the filter circuit 26 and the A/D.
The signal is transmitted to the FFT 28 via the converter 27, and is also transmitted to the forward flow separation circuit 33 via the filter circuit 26. As a result, the blood flow pattern at the sampling point resulting from the above change is displayed on the CRT display 30, and the Doppler sound at that time is output from the speaker 34.

In this way, in the device of this embodiment, the ultrasound Doppler shift information before sampling is converted into a digital signal and stored, so it is possible to change the sampling point when reproducing past blood flow information. Furthermore, the Doppler sound at that time can also be reproduced.

In the above embodiment, the case where either the current blood flow pattern or the past blood flow pattern is displayed was explained, but by freezing the past blood flow pattern, it is possible to display the past blood flow pattern and the past blood flow pattern. The current real-time blood flow pattern may be displayed on the same screen. FIG. 2 shows a display example in this case. In the figure, 36 is a past B-mode image (freeze image), 39 is a current real-time B-mode image, and 37° and 40 are markers indicating sampling points set on these B-mode images 36 and 39, respectively. is. Further, 38 is a blood flow pattern (frozen image) displayed based on the contents stored in the memory 32, and four sampling points of this blood flow pattern 32 are indicated by markers 37. 41 more
is a real-time blood flow pattern based on currently collected data, and sampling points of this blood flow pattern 41 are indicated by markers 40. The sampling points (markers 40) of the real-time blood flow pattern 41 can be changed in the direction of the arrow 43 by controlling the deflection angle of the ultrasound beam, and in the direction of the arrow 44 by controlling the sampling timing of the sample hold circuit 25.

Furthermore, sampling points of past blood flow patterns 38 (
The direction of the arrow 45 of the marker 37) can be changed by controlling the sampling timing when sampling the contents stored in the memory 32. According to such a display, it is possible to easily compare and examine the current blood flow pattern and past blood flow patterns.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and that various modifications can be made.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, the present invention provides an ultrasonic Doppler that can change the sampling point even when displaying past blood flow information and can also reproduce the doorbell sound at that time. A diagnostic device can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of image display in another embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional apparatus. 23... Phase detection circuit, 24... Selection circuit, 25.
...Sample hold circuit, 31...A/D converter, 32...memory.

Claims (1)

[Claims] It has a phase detection circuit that detects the phase of an echo signal obtained by transmitting and receiving ultrasound to and from a living body to obtain Doppler shift information of the ultrasound, and a sample and hold circuit that samples the obtained Doppler shift information, and the output of this sample and hold circuit. In the ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus that obtains blood flow information of the living body based on the information and provides it for diagnosis, a memory for storing ultrasonic Doppler shift information before sampling, an output of this memory, and an output of the phase detection circuit are selected. an ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus comprising: a selection circuit for transmitting data to the sample and hold circuit;