JPH06209936A - Ultrasonic observation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an ultrasonic observation device which can simultaneously display a plurality of images which are not contracted, including at least a desired region, on a screen, in static image forms and permits an operator to select a desired image from among the above-described images. CONSTITUTION:The image data for all the screen portions which is taken in by the radial scan by an ultrasonic vibrator element 1 is coordinate-transformed by a DSC 5 and inputted into memories 6-9. When an operator operates a freeze switch not shown on the figure plural times, the image data after the coordinate transformation which corresponds to the radial scan at the time point of each switch operation is written into the memories 6-9 according to the instruction signal transmitted by a data write-in control circuit 14. The image data which is region-designated among the image data written into the memories 6-9 is read out by a selector 10 according to the instruction signal of a data read-out control circuit 15, and simultaneously displayed as static image, on each prescribed region of a CRT 12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic observation apparatus for displaying a sectional image of the inside of a body cavity or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional ultrasonic observation apparatus, in order to capture a desired image, an operator who is observing a CRT has a stop switch of the ultrasonic observation apparatus when the desired image is displayed in the CRT. The (freeze switch) is pressed to display a still image (freeze image) on the CRT, and the image is captured. However, when a moving body such as a human being is set as the subject, and the probe cannot be fixed when observing the inside of the body cavity, the inside of the blood vessel, etc., it is often the case that only the image different from the desired region can be obtained, so It was necessary to repeat the capturing of the still image until the image of the site was obtained, and the work efficiency was not good.

In order to eliminate such a problem, FIG.
Conventional examples shown in (a) and (b) have been proposed. In this conventional example, first, a plurality of still images including a desired still image are accumulated in a memory (for example, RAM) of the ultrasonic observation apparatus, and then reduced as shown in FIG. A desired still image is selected from the displayed images and the full screen is displayed as shown in FIG. Further, when a radial type device is used in a mechanical scan having a slow scanning speed, the start and end of writing of an image may be different as shown in FIG. There is also a conventional example in which the desired still image is selected from among the reduced and accumulated images.

[0004]

However, in each of the above-mentioned conventional examples, the operator selects one still image from the reduced still images based on desired conditions, which imposes a great burden on the operator. Not only that, the selection work is performed while looking at the image with degraded resolution, so that the image actually displayed on the CRT screen is often far from what the operator intended.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to simultaneously display a plurality of unreduced images including at least a desired area, and the operator can select the desired image from among them. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic observation apparatus capable of selecting

[0006]

To this end, an ultrasonic observation apparatus of the present invention comprises a storage means for storing ultrasonic image data, and a data writing means for writing the captured full-screen image data in the storage means. In the ultrasonic observation apparatus, a single image screen is provided, which includes a data reading unit that reads the ultrasonic image data stored in the storage unit and displays it on the screen, and a timing control unit that controls the timing of the data writing and the data reading. A screen display selection means for selecting display or multi-image screen display and an area designating means for designating a desired area in the full-screen image data are provided, and the full-screen image written at different timings when the multi-image screen display is selected. It is characterized in that a plurality of ultrasonic image data in a designated area of the data can be simultaneously displayed. .

[0007]

According to the present invention, with the above configuration, when a plurality of image screens is selected, the ultrasonic image data in the designated area is extracted from the entire screen image data written at different timings and a plurality of them are simultaneously displayed. The image that the operator sees when selecting one of them includes at least the desired designated area, and since it is not reduced, the resolution is not deteriorated. Therefore, an image as intended by the operator can be obtained, and the operator's image selection work becomes easy.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a first embodiment of an ultrasonic observation apparatus of the present invention, in which 1 denotes an ultrasonic transducer arranged at the tip of an ultrasonic probe (not shown). While being inserted into the body cavity and rotating in the radial direction to perform radial scanning, the ultrasonic transducer 1 is applied with a high-voltage pulse generated by the pulsar 13 to transmit ultrasonic waves, and at the same time output an echo signal in the radial direction. An image is captured by receiving it. The captured ultrasonic image data (hereinafter referred to as image data) is converted into a voltage by the ultrasonic transducer 1 and then input to the amplifier 2. After that, the ultrasonic image data signal is amplified by the amplifier 2, detected by the detection circuit 3 to remove the carrier, converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 4, and then converted into a DSC (Digital Scan C
Onverter) 5 performs coordinate conversion and interpolation processing.

The image data after the coordinate conversion is sequentially input to the memories 6-9. The memories 6 to 9 have a storage capacity for storing ultrasonic image data (hereinafter, referred to as full-screen image data) corresponding to the full screen of the CRT, which will be described later, and the data writing control circuit 14 writes the data. In addition to being controlled, the data read control circuit 15 controls the reading of data and the area to be read. After the read image data is input to the selector 10, D
A / A converter 11 converts to analog signal, CRT12
Is displayed as an ultrasonic image.

An operation console 16 is provided for inputting various command signals to the data write control circuit 14 and the data read control circuit 15. The console 16 issues various command signals as described in detail below in response to an input operation (switch operation, area specifying operation with a mouse, etc.) by an operator (not shown).

Next, the operation of the ultrasonic observation apparatus of this embodiment will be described. First, when the ultrasonic transducer 1 is inserted into the body cavity of the subject and the radial scanning is started, the image data captured by the ultrasonic transducer 1 is stored in the amplifier 2, the detection circuit 3, and the A / D.
It is input to the memory 6 via the converter 4 and DSC 5.
At this time, since the input full-screen image data is constantly overwritten in the memory 6, when the stored contents of the memory 6 are input to the CRT 12 via the selector 10 and the D / A converter 11, the CRT screen is displayed. Only one full screen image is displayed. This full-screen image does not become a still image but a moving image because the stored contents of the memory 6 constantly change.

Next, the operator operates a select switch (not shown) on the console 16 to switch the screen display. For example, if the one-image screen display mode in which one full-screen image is displayed when the select switch operation is not performed is set, the one-image screen display mode is switched to the multiple-image screen display mode by this select switch operation. It will be. In this multi-image screen display mode, the CRT 12 display screen can be divided into a plurality of (in this case, four) screens, and different images can be displayed on the respective divided screens. Since the above operation has not been performed, what is actually displayed on the CRT 12 is a full-screen image.

Next, the operator, while looking at the changing full-screen image, performs an operation of pressing a freeze switch (not shown) of the console 16 when the desired full-screen image appears.
The timing of data writing is determined by the command signal from the data writing control circuit 14 output according to this freeze operation, and the full-screen image at that time is written in the memory 6, and the screen display of the CRT 12 is fixed and stopped. It becomes an image (freeze image).

Next, the operator designates a desired area (area particularly desired by the operator) while looking at the still image. This area is designated by, for example, the operator CR
As shown in FIG. 3, when the display screen of T12 is divided into four areas, one of the areas 1 to 4 representing the area 1 to 4 is keyed in, or the mouse is used to select an arbitrary rectangular area. Do by instructing. The area specified here is effective in the image data obtained by the freeze operation and the following freeze operations. After this area designation is completed, the screen display of the CRT 12 becomes a moving image of the full screen image again.

Next, the operator again presses the freeze switch (not shown) of the console 16 when the desired full-screen image appears while looking at the changing full-screen image. The timing of data writing is determined by the command signal from the data writing control circuit 14 output according to this freeze operation, and the full-screen image at that time is stored in the memory 7.
And the screen display of the CRT 12 is fixed and becomes a still image (freeze image). Similarly, the full-screen image is written in the memories 8 and 9.

When the writing of the four full-screen images written at different timings as described above is completed,
A command signal is input to the data read control circuit 15 from the console 16 to which the fourth freeze operation signal is input, the timing of data read is determined, and the data read control circuit 15 drives the selector 10 at that timing. As a result, the selector 10 selectively reads only the image data corresponding to the area determined by the above designation among the image data written in the memories 6 to 9. And selector 10
Output signal is converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 11 and divided into four as shown in FIG. 2 (b).
It is displayed on each of the 12 split screens. At this time, the operator selects one of the areas 1 to 4 in order to select the most preferable one from the simultaneously displayed divided screens. Then, as shown in FIG. It is possible to display only the ultrasonic image of the above as a still image on the full screen, which facilitates data collection and the like.

Simultaneous display of the plurality of image data is performed as follows. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the horizontal address H0 to H199 and the vertical address V0 to V199 are associated with the entire screen of the CRT 12, if the display screen of the CRT 12 is divided into four, areas 1 to 4 are respectively H0 to H99. And V0-V99, H0-H99 and V100-V19
9, H100-H199 and V0-V99, H100-
It corresponds to H199 and V100 to V199. In addition, H0 to H19 stored in the memories 6 to 9
The image data of the areas determined by the above designation among the full-screen image data of 9 and the addresses V0 to V199 correspond to the areas 1 to 4, respectively.

According to the first embodiment, since the above-described configuration can obtain a plurality of images including the region particularly desired by the operator (that is, the image of the region of interest to the operator), the operator's intention is compared by comparing the images. It is easy to obtain a still image of the exact site. At that time, since the image used for comparison is not reduced, the resolution does not deteriorate.

In the first embodiment, the screen division is divided into four. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the number of divisions is increased to more than 4 (for example, 9 divisions) to display a larger number of images simultaneously. You may do it. Also, specify the area as 1
Although it is performed after the first operation of the freeze switch, the area may be designated before the first operation of the freeze switch.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the construction of the main part of the second embodiment of the ultrasonic observation apparatus of the present invention. The second embodiment is a modification of the first embodiment in that the freeze switch is operated only once.
The parts not shown have the same construction as in the first embodiment.

That is, in this second embodiment, D
The full-screen image data after coordinate conversion, which is the output of SC5, is continuously input to the memories 6 to 8, but the timing of writing the full-screen image data is different from each other. For example, when the operator operates the freeze switch on the console 16, a predetermined time t is set with reference to the time of the operation.
The full-screen image data at the time of tracing back is written in the memory 6, the full-screen image data at the time of the operation is written in the memory 7, and the full-screen image data at the time when a predetermined time t elapses with reference to the time of the operation. The write control circuit 14 outputs a command signal for writing the data into the memory 8.

In the second embodiment, since the full-screen image data at the time of the operation and the time before and after the operation can be fetched by only operating the freeze switch once, the operator should miss the timing of operating the freeze switch. Is eliminated and operability is further improved. It should be noted that the number of memories is not limited to three in the above configuration, and if it is set to an odd number larger than that, the number of images simultaneously displayed on the split screen of the CRT 12 increases. Further, if the full-screen images at the time of the operation are not captured and only the full-screen images at the previous and subsequent times are captured, the number of memories can be made even.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the third embodiment of the ultrasonic observation apparatus of the present invention, in which 100 is an ultrasonic transducer. The ultrasonic transducer 100 is inserted into the body cavity and is rotated in the radial direction to perform a radial scan.
The image is captured by transmitting the ultrasonic wave by applying the high voltage pulse generated by 118 and receiving the echo signal in the radial direction, and after the captured image data is converted into a voltage by the ultrasonic transducer 100. Amplifier 101
Entered in. Then, the image data signal is transferred to the amplifier 10
The signal is amplified by 1, detected by the detection circuit 102 to remove the carrier, converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 103, then coordinate-converted by the DSC 104, and then the frame memory.
It is stored in 105 to 108 sequentially.

The frame memories 105 to 108 are Cs, which will be described later.
It has a storage capacity for storing the full-screen image data corresponding to the full screen of the RT, and the image data captured by the first scan is stored in the frame memory 105. The image data taken in is stored in the frame memories 106 to 108. The image data stored in the frame memories 105-108 are selectors 119-122 and line buffers 109-112, respectively.
Then, the data is input to the comparison calculation circuit 113 after being subjected to processing described later, and is also input to the selector 114 as it is. The selector 114 stores only the image data selected from all the input image data in the frame memory 115 based on a command from the comparison calculation circuit 113 described later, and the image data stored in the frame memory 115 is It is converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 116 and displayed as an ultrasonic image on the CRT 117.

Next, the operation of the ultrasonic observation apparatus of this embodiment will be described. When the ultrasonic transducer 100 is inserted into the body cavity of the subject or the like and the radial scanning is started, the image data captured by the ultrasonic transducer 100 is transferred to the amplifier 101, the detection circuit 102, A /
Frame memory 10 via D converter 103 and DSC 104
Entered in 5. When such radial scanning is repeated n times, the image data for the first time to the nth frame for n times are respectively stored in the frames 105 to 108. From the frame memories 105 to 108 in which the image data has been written as described above, the data of the first scanning line at the beginning of writing and the data of the mth scanning line at the end of writing corresponding to the radial scan are addressed by the selectors 119 to 122. The data is scanned and read, and stored in the line buffers 109 to 112. It should be noted that (n + 1) th scanning and subsequent scans (n
Since the image data of the +1) th frame is overwritten in the frame memory 105 and the same is done thereafter, the contents of the line buffers 109 to 112 are sequentially rewritten with the lapse of time.

Here, for example, when a scanning stop command is issued from the control means (not shown) in response to an operator's freeze operation, the data of the mth scanning line is stored in the frame memory in the radial scanning performed at that time. After that, the scanning is stopped, and the line buffers 109 to 112 respectively
The data of the first scanning line and the m-th scanning line are written. In this state, the comparison calculation circuit 113 takes the correlation between the data of the first scanning line and the data of the m-th scanning line stored in each of the line buffers 109 to 112, and calculates the data of the first scanning line and the m-th scanning line. Select the frame data that most closely resembles the
The result is transferred to the selector 114. In response to this, the selector 114 selects the frame data in which the data of the first scanning line and the data of the m-th scanning line are closest to each other from the image data input from the frame memories 105 to 108, It is stored in the frame memory 115. Frame memory 11
The image data stored in 5 is converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 116 and then displayed as a still image on the CRT 117.

In the third embodiment, the data at the beginning of writing (first scanning line) and the data at the end of writing (m-th scanning line) are discontinuous when the probe moves or the subject moves during the radial scanning. It is possible to prevent problems such as those shown in FIG. That is, with the above-described configuration, the image data in which the data at the beginning of writing and the data at the end of writing are most similar to each other are automatically selected and displayed several frames back from the time when the radial scanning stop command is issued (at the time of the freeze operation), The gap between the data at the beginning of writing and the data at the end of writing can be made much smaller than before. Therefore, when measuring the lumen area of a blood vessel or the like, the number of discontinuities is minimized, which reduces measurement errors, enables accurate diagnosis, and reduces the burden on the operator.

It should be noted that if the image data (moving image) captured by modifying the configuration of the third embodiment (not shown) is written (overwritten) into the frame memory 115 at any time, the still image is captured. In addition, the operator can monitor real-time image data (moving image) on the CRT 117.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the fourth embodiment of the ultrasonic observation apparatus of the present invention. The same parts as those of the third embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted. The difference between the fourth embodiment and the third embodiment is that the switch 123 is inserted between the frame memory 115 and the D / A converter 116 of the configuration of FIG. 5 of the third embodiment, and the difference between the DSC 104 and the switch 123. The frame memory 124 is newly added to the selector 12 and the selector 12 is used instead of the selectors 119 to 122 in FIG.
5 is provided and the output signal of the A / D converter 103 is DSC10.
That is, after passing through 4, the signal is directly input to the line buffers 109 to 112 through the selector 125.

Next, the operation of the ultrasonic observation apparatus of this embodiment will be described. The image data captured by the ultrasonic transducer 100 by the radial scanning is the amplifier 101, the detection circuit 102, and the A / D.
The coordinates are converted through the converter 103 and the DSC 104 and input to the frame memory 105 and the new frame memory 124. At the same time, the data of the first scanning line and the data of the m-th scanning line corresponding to the radial scanning are
The data is read by the address scanning of the selector 125 and stored in the line buffer 109 without coordinate conversion. Similarly, the second scan captured by the second radial scan
The image data of the frame is stored in the frame memories 106 and 12
4, the data of the first scanning line and the data of the m-th scanning line are stored in the line buffer 110, and the image data of the (n + 1) th frame captured by the (n + 1) th scanning is input to the frame memory 105 and the frame memory. 12
4 is overwritten, and the content of the line buffer 109 is overwritten accordingly. During this time, the switch 123 is set to select the frame memory 124 by the control means (not shown), and the image data is constantly rewritten in the frame memory 124. Therefore, the image data in the frame memory 124 is displayed on the CRT 117 as a moving image. Is displayed.

Here, for example, when a scanning stop command is issued from the control means (not shown) in response to an operator's freeze operation, the first scanning line and the m-th scanning are carried out after the data up to the m-th scanning line is fetched in the radial scanning. The scanning is stopped after the line data is stored in the frame memory. At the time of this stop, the image data corresponding to the scanning up to n times from the scanning stop command is written in each of the frame memories 105 to 108, and the image data corresponding to the last scanning is written in the frame memory 124. The line buffers 109 to 112 are in a state in which the data of the first scanning line and the data of the m-th scanning line are written. In this state, the comparison calculation circuit 113 operates the line buffers 109
Correlation between the data of the first scanning line and the data of the m-th scanning line, which are respectively stored in
Select the frame data that most closely resembles the scanning line data from all frame data, and select the result.
Forward to 114.

In response to this, the selector 114 causes the image data corresponding to the frame memory selected from the frame memories 105 to 108, in other words, the data of the first scanning line and the data of the m-th scanning line to be the closest to each other. The selected frame data is selected and stored in the frame memory 115. The image data stored in the frame memory 115 is converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 116 by the switch 123 switching to select the frame memory 115 by the control means (not shown), and then the CRT 117.
Is displayed as a still image.

In the fourth embodiment, the line data (the data of the first scanning line and the data of the m-th scanning line) can be taken out before the coordinate conversion by the above structure, so that the line buffer can be obtained.
It becomes easy to write data to 109 to 112 and the data writing time is shortened.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the screen display selecting means selects the multi-image screen display, the whole screen written in the storage means by the data writing means at different timing under the control of the timing control means. From the image data, the ultrasonic image data in the area specified by the area specifying means is extracted and displayed at the same time,
The image that the operator sees when selecting one of them contains at least the desired designated area and has not been scaled down so that the resolution is not degraded. Therefore, an image as intended by the operator can be obtained, and the operator's image selection work becomes easy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of an ultrasonic observation apparatus of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams illustrating screen displays in a single-image screen display mode and a multiple-image screen display mode, respectively, in the CRT of the same example.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between screen division and addresses in the same example.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a second embodiment of the ultrasonic observation apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a third embodiment of the ultrasonic observation apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a fourth embodiment of the ultrasonic observation apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a conventional technique.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Ultrasonic transducer 5 DSC (Digital Scan Converter) 6 to 9 Memory 10 Selector 12 CRT 14 Data write control circuit 15 Data read control circuit 16 Operator console

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location H04N 7/18 U

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Storage means for storing ultrasonic image data, data writing means for writing the captured full-screen image data in the storage means, and ultrasonic image data stored in the storage means for screen display. An ultrasonic observation apparatus comprising data reading means and timing control means for controlling the timing of data writing and data reading, a screen display selecting means for selecting one image screen display or a plurality of image screen displays, and a full screen image An area designating unit for designating a desired area in the data may be provided to simultaneously display a plurality of ultrasonic image data in the designated area in the full-screen image data written at different timings when the multiple image screen display is selected. An ultrasonic observation device characterized by doing so.