JPH044729Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (1) Technical field of the invention The invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic device that can display a B-mode image and an M-mode image at the same time. A mark indicating the correspondence with the frozen image is displayed on the screen of the mode image.

(2) Background of technology Ultrasonic diagnostic equipment (hereinafter referred to as UDS) has A,
There are display modes such as B, C, and M, but some are equipped with two display screens (CRT) and can display images in B mode and M mode simultaneously. In B mode display, if we take sector scanning as an example (there is essentially no difference in linear scanning), the origin is 0 as shown in Figure 1a.
The electron beam S _l - S _o of the display that performs similar scanning is brightness modulated by the amplitude of the reflected wave obtained by scanning with radial ultrasound pulses centered at , and the radial direction corresponds to the diagnostic depth. , the field of view is in the circumferential direction. Generally, the number of scanning lines n is 110 to 120, and 1
The frame period is about 33ms. The M-mode display arranges the information obtained by a specific scanning line Si of the B-mode display in chronological order as shown in Figure 1b, and displays the temporal change of a specific part of the specimen on the scanning line Si. It is. However, the scanning line S _il of M mode,
If S _i2 ... is set to one per frame in B mode, the interval will be as coarse as 33ms, so
Generally, M mode scanning is performed at a rate of about one for every three to four B mode scanning lines. For example, S ₁ ,
The scanning is S ₂ , S ₃ , S _i1 , S ₄ , S ₅ , S ₆ , S _i2 , S ₇ , . . . , and this can be easily performed with electronic scanning. However, in mechanical scanning, it is difficult to suddenly change the probe direction, so dedicated probes are provided for each of the B mode and M mode (with electronic scanning, only one probe is required). When B mode and M mode are displayed simultaneously on different displays, the scanning line Si shown in Figure 1a is usually used as a bright line ( This is called an M mode direction indicating bright line or the like. Normally, one frame period in M mode is set to about 2 to 5 seconds, so a CRT (cathode ray tube) with strong afterglow properties is used for the display.

(3) Prior art and problems Figure 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional UDS. 1 is a probe equipped with a transducer that transmits and receives ultrasonic pulses, and 2 is the transmission period of the ultrasonic pulses. 3 is an analog processing unit that corrects the level of the received reflected wave according to the diagnosis depth; 4 is an A/D conversion unit that converts an analog image signal into a digital signal; 5 6 is a frame memory that records the output, and 6 is a frame memory for B mode after converting the output of the memory again into an analog signal.
A display control unit 8 displays on the CRT 7 extracts only the M mode data D corresponding to the scanning line Si explained in FIG. 1 from the output of the analog processing unit 3,
10 is an M mode recording control unit for recording on the scanning line;
M mode display control unit that displays Si on CRT11;
12 is a changeover switch for selecting the input of the CRT 11 from the control units 6 and 10; 13 is a photographing device for photographing the image of the CRT 11; 14 is its control unit; TG ₂ is an imaging trigger signal; 15 is an overall control unit; 16 is a control unit for the CRT 11; This is an operation panel for instructing various operations.

If the switch 12 is in the state shown in this device,
A B-mode image is displayed on the CRT7, and an M-mode image is displayed on the CRT11. The B-mode series frame memory 5 is for displaying a frozen image on the CRT 7, but by writing and reading it sequentially at all times, the CRT 7 can display a B-mode image as a moving image in one frame of 33 ms. However, when the freeze trigger signal TG ₁ is input, after one frame's worth of data is written into the frame memory 5, further writing is prohibited. Therefore, the same data is repeatedly read out from the memory 5, so that a B-mode frozen image is displayed on the CRT 7. In this case, everything else works the same way, so recorder 9, CRT 1
Recording of the M mode image by No. 1 continues in the same manner as before the display freeze.

By the way, when displaying the B mode image and the M mode image simultaneously in real time, the M mode image (image) can be obtained by displaying the scanning line Si in brightness as shown in Figure 1a.
Although the upper position is known, when the B-mode image is turned into a frozen image, it is unknown to which point on the M-mode image it corresponds. When the freeze button is pressed, scanning returns to the initial position, and then it takes more than 30ms to create one frozen image screen.
Meanwhile, scanning progresses in M mode, and the above
Even after the frozen image is created and displayed after 30ms, M-mode scanning (in which the probe repeatedly sends and receives ultrasound in the same direction) continues, so the B-mode frozen image is an M-mode image. I don't know which part of my throat it affects. The so-called Q, R, and S waves that appear in an electrocardiogram occur before the heart contracts, and the display of one frame's worth of frozen images from the Q, R, and S waves and the corresponding position of the frozen image in the M-mode image is useful for cardiac diagnosis. Give useful information.

(4) Purpose of the invention The present invention attempts to display marks indicating the start and end points of freezing on the M-mode image side in order to facilitate correspondence between the M-mode image and the B-mode frozen image described above. .

(5) Structure of the invention The basic structure of the invention is that when receiving a freeze trigger signal for the B-mode image in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that can display real-time B-mode images and M-mode images simultaneously, A control section that once resets the scanning and starts over again from the beginning, outputs a freeze start signal, and outputs a freeze end signal after one frame time has elapsed, and an M mode display when receiving the freeze start signal and the freeze end signal. The present invention is characterized in that the control section is provided with a changeover switch that sends a freeze mark signal instead of M mode data.

(6) Embodiments of the invention The invention will be described in detail below with reference to illustrated embodiments. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, mainly showing the parts added to FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a diagram of its operating waveforms. When the control unit 15 receives the freeze trigger signal TG ₁ , it once resets sector scanning and scans the scanning line S ₁ (see Figure 1a).
On the other hand, a freeze start signal ST corresponding to one scanning period is generated in synchronization with the clock CK that will be input from then on. This signal ST closes the analog switch 21 on the M mode data D side through the NOR gate 20, and opens the analog switch 23 with the inverted signal from the inverter 22. Therefore, the M mode display data D given to the M mode display control section 10 during this period ' becomes the freeze mark signal FM (this is referred to as FM _S ). A freeze start signal is sent from the control unit 15.
When the time of one frame has passed after ST transmission, a freeze end signal ED is output. This also has the same characteristics as the signal ST, and correspondingly, the second freeze mark signal FM (this will be referred to as FM _E ) is sent to the control unit 10.
given to. During the period when the control unit 15 is not outputting the signal ST or ED, the analog switch 21 is open.
23 is closed and M mode data D is input to the control section 10. As a result, marks FM _S and FM _E indicating the start and end times of freezing are displayed on the real-time M mode image as shown in FIG. M
When mode scanning progresses and reaches the end on the CRT screen, scanning will restart from the beginning of the same screen, and this will be repeated from now on, but the marks FM _S and FM _E will be displayed on the 1M mode screen when the freeze operation is performed. Only. In order to display the data for a longer period of time, it is possible to freeze the M mode, take a photo, or repeatedly generate marks (in this case, there will be no temporal consistency from the next week onwards).

FIG. 6 shows an example of a scanning control circuit provided within the control section 15. The scanning counter 24 is cleared by the freeze trigger signal _TG1 , and the scanning returns to the starting point.
After that, count the transmission clock CL and the count value is 1,
2, 3, etc., and the decoder 25 uses the counter 24.
It decodes the outputs of and generates signals corresponding to the scanning lines S ₁ , S ₂ , . . . S _o . When the number of scanning lines in one frame is counted, the decoder generates a signal instructing to stop B-mode scanning. In this example, when the count value of the counter 24 reaches 1 and the number of scanning lines in one frame reaches 120, the decoder 25 issues a freeze start signal ST and a freeze end signal ED. Furthermore, Mark FM _S ,
FM _E can also record this in recorder 9. Furthermore, these marks can also be generated from memory.

(7) Effects of the invention As described above, according to the invention, the freezing point of the B-mode frozen image is clearly shown on the M-mode image, which is convenient for analysis and interpretation of the B-mode frozen image. It also has the advantage of being able to check whether the timing of freezing was as desired.

In addition, when a freeze trigger occurs, the B mode scan is reset and the scan is restarted from the beginning, so all frozen images are from after the freeze trigger, and there is no possibility that some images from before are mixed in. The relationship between the freeze timing on the B-mode freeze image and the M-mode image becomes even clearer.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIGS. 1 and 2 are explanatory diagrams of a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that simultaneously displays a B-mode image and an M-mode image,
Fig. 3 is a configuration diagram of the main parts showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 4 is an operation waveform diagram thereof, and Fig. 5 is a M
FIG. 6, which is an explanatory diagram of mode display, is a main part configuration diagram of the control section in FIG. 3. In the figure, 5 is for frame memory, 7 is for B mode
CRT, 10 is M mode display control unit, 11 is CRT for M mode, FM _S is freeze start mark, FM _E
is the freeze end mark.

Claims (1)

[Claim for Utility Model Registration] In an ultrasonic diagnostic device that can simultaneously display real-time B-mode images and M-mode images, when receiving a freeze trigger signal for the B-mode image, the scanning of the B-mode image is reset once and the Start over again and output the freeze start signal again.
and a control section that outputs a freeze end signal after one frame time has elapsed; and a changeover switch that sends a freeze mark signal to the M mode display control section in place of the M mode data when receiving the freeze start signal and the freeze end signal. An ultrasonic diagnostic device characterized by being provided with.