JPH1075950A - Ultrasound diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the ultrasonic diagnostic images of high image quality with less noise components. SOLUTION: An ultrasonic probe 1 is the one for transmitting ultrasonic wave pulses to a testee body not shown in the figure and receiving reflected waves from the inside of the testee body and is especially constituted so as to transmit the plural ultrasonic wave pulses to the same part of the testee body while shifting time and receive the plural reflected waves corresponding to the plural ultrasonic wave pulses. An arithmetic processing part 4 laminates (integrates) the reception signals of the plural reflected waves relating to the same part (point) of the testee body and prepares B mode images.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for transmitting ultrasonic waves into a living body and obtaining biological information such as an ultrasonic tomographic image from reflected waves from tissues in the living body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus which transmits an ultrasonic wave into a living body, receives a reflected wave from each tissue in the living body, and creates an ultrasonic diagnostic image based on the reflected wave is non-invasive. And has the advantage of being able to diagnose soft tissues without a contrast agent, and is currently widely used in the medical field.

[0003] An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises an apparatus main body and an ultrasonic probe detachably connected to the apparatus main body via a cable and a connector. The ultrasonic probe has a piezoelectric vibrator for transmitting an ultrasonic pulse and receiving a reflected wave therein. The operator holds such an ultrasonic probe by hand and makes a diagnosis by bringing the ultrasonic probe into contact with the body surface of the subject.

[0004] In diagnosis, first, each piezoelectric vibrator is driven to generate an ultrasonic transmission pulse. The generated ultrasonic transmission pulse is transmitted from the ultrasonic probe into the subject. On the other hand, a reflected wave from the inside of the subject due to the ultrasonic transmission pulse is received by the transducer. The received reflected wave is converted into an electric signal. This signal represents echo information from the living body, and the signal is processed to create an in-vivo image, for example, an ultrasonic diagnostic image such as a tomographic image (B-mode image) or a blood flow Doppler image.

However, such a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus has the following problems. That is, when creating an ultrasonic diagnostic image, only a single ultrasonic transmission pulse is transmitted for one point of a diagnostic site in a living body, and image information is obtained based on the reflected wave. For this reason, there is a problem that the intensity of the reflected wave is low and the noise component increases.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of obtaining a high-quality ultrasonic diagnostic image having a small noise component. With the goal.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

(1) The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention transmits a plurality of ultrasonic pulses to the same part of a subject at different times, and receives a plurality of reflected waves corresponding to the plurality of ultrasonic pulses. An ultrasonic probe, and image processing means for creating an ultrasonic diagnostic image of the subject based on a plurality of reflected waves on the same site obtained by the ultrasonic probe.

(2) The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention is the apparatus according to the above (1), wherein the ultrasonic probe is
A plurality of ultrasonic transducers are arranged and arranged in a two-dimensional array.

(3) The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is the apparatus described in (1) or (2) above, wherein the holding arm for stopping the ultrasonic probe at a required position during image acquisition. It is characterized by having.

(4) The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention is the apparatus according to the above (3), wherein the encoder is attached to the holding arm and outputs position information, and the position information output by the encoder is Detecting means for detecting a three-dimensional position of the ultrasonic probe based on the above.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe 1,
It comprises a sending / receiving unit 2, a receiver 3, an arithmetic processing unit 4, a memory 5, a display processing unit 6, and a monitor 7.

The ultrasonic probe 1 transmits an ultrasonic pulse toward a subject (not shown) and receives a reflected wave from inside the subject. In particular, in the present embodiment, a plurality of ultrasonic pulses are transmitted to the same part of the subject at different times, and a plurality of reflected waves corresponding to the plurality of ultrasonic pulses are received.

The transmitting / receiving circuit 2 transmits a pulse signal for transmitting an ultrasonic pulse to the ultrasonic probe 1 and receives a signal (echo signal) based on a reflected wave received by the ultrasonic probe 1. . The receiver 3 receives outputs from the transmission / reception unit 2 and the arithmetic processing unit 4. Arithmetic processing unit 4
Is connected between the transmission / reception unit 2 and the receiver 3, and creates an in-vivo image (B-mode image in this case) using the reception signal transmitted from the transmission / reception unit 2.

A memory 5 is connected to the arithmetic processing unit 4,
The memory 5 stores a procedure of a process executed by the arithmetic processing unit 4, data necessary for the process, and the like. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the ultrasonic probe 1 and the transmission / reception circuit 2. The ultrasonic probe 1 includes a plurality of ultrasonic transducers 1
1 are arranged in a two-dimensional array, so that an ultrasonic three-dimensional image can be collected. or,
The transmission / reception circuit 2 includes a plurality of transmission / reception circuits 21 connected to each of the plurality of ultrasonic transducers 11 of the ultrasonic probe 1.
And a plurality of delay circuits 22 connected to each of the transmission / reception circuits 21 and an addition circuit 23 for adding outputs from the individual delay circuits 23.

FIG. 3A is a block diagram showing the configuration of the transmission / reception circuit 21. At the time of transmission, a pulse signal is generated in the oscillator 212 based on the timing signal supplied from the timing generation circuit 211 and a control signal from a scan control unit (not shown).
This pulse signal is output to the ultrasonic transducer 11 via the pulser 213. The ultrasonic transducer 11 includes a pulsar 21
An ultrasonic pulse is transmitted on the basis of the pulse signal output from 3. Here, a plurality of ultrasonic pulses are transmitted to the same part of the subject at different times.

On the other hand, at the time of reception, the reflected wave of the previously transmitted ultrasonic pulse is received by the ultrasonic transducer 11. Note that, here, reflected waves from a plurality of ultrasonic pulses transmitted at different times to the same part of the subject are received. The ultrasonic transducer 11 outputs a signal (echo signal) based on the reflected wave. This echo signal is transmitted /
Delay circuit 22 via preamplifier 214 of receiving circuit 21
Is output to The delay circuit 22 gives a predetermined delay time to each echo signal.

As shown in FIG. 3B, for example, the reflected wave W1 of the ultrasonic pulse P1 transmitted at time T1, the reflected wave W2 of the ultrasonic pulse P2 transmitted at time T2,
Reflected wave W of ultrasonic pulse P3 transmitted at time T3
3. The reflected wave W4 of the ultrasonic pulse P4 transmitted at the time T4 is sequentially subjected to A / D conversion, sent to the arithmetic processing unit 4 as an echo signal, and stored in the memory 4. In addition,
The number of ultrasonic pulses applied to the same point is not limited to four.

The arithmetic processing unit 4 is provided for the same part (point) of the subject.
In response to the collection of all of the plurality of reflected waves (here, four W1 to W4), these echo signals are read out from the memory 4 and stacked (integrated). FIG. 3C conceptually shows how the calculation processing unit 4 integrates the reflected waves W1 to W4.

Further, the arithmetic processing unit 4 performs logarithmic conversion on the amplitude of the received signal obtained by integration, detects an envelope, and performs A / D conversion.
Convert. As a result, a so-called B-mode image is obtained. The obtained B-mode image is sent to a monitor 7 via a display processing unit 6 including a receiver 3 and a DSC (digital scan converter), and is displayed.

In this embodiment, a plurality of reflected wave signals related to the same portion (point) of the subject are stacked (integrated).
Thus, the B-mode image is created, so that the S / N of the image can be improved as compared with the case where an image is created using only one reflected wave whose signal intensity is weaker than the transmitted ultrasonic pulse. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a high-quality ultrasonic diagnostic image with few noise components.

By the way, as described above, this embodiment transmits a plurality of ultrasonic pulses to the same part of the subject at different times and receives a plurality of reflected waves corresponding to the plurality of ultrasonic pulses. Requires a relatively long time for scanning. In other words, it is necessary for the operator to hold the ultrasonic probe by hand and to stand still at the same position for a long time while keeping the probe in contact with the body surface of the subject. For this reason, a burden is imposed on the operator.

Therefore, the present embodiment is provided with means for holding the ultrasonic probe at a required position during image acquisition. FIG. 4 is an external view showing a configuration of a fixing mechanism of the ultrasonic probe and a three-dimensional position measuring mechanism. FIG. 4 (a)
As shown in (1), a probe holding arm 30 is attached to the apparatus main body 40, and the ultrasonic probe 1 is held by the probe holding arm 30. The probe holding arm 30 has a plurality of movable parts 31, and the movable part 31 is movable so that the probe holding arm 30 can be freely bent. That is, the ultrasonic probe 1 can be held and fixed at a required position in space.

The movable part 31 is shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C.
As shown in FIG. 7, the first link 33 and the second link are constituted by a fixing screw 32 with a lever, a first link 33, and a second link 34, and the operator tightens the fixing screw 32 with a lever. When the operator loosens the screw 32, both are released. That is, by operating the screw 32, the ultrasonic probe 1 can be stopped at a required position in space, and the position can be freely changed.

According to such an ultrasonic probe fixing mechanism, even when a long time is required for scanning, it is not necessary to hold the ultrasonic probe by hand, and the burden is reduced.

By the way, each movable portion 31 of the probe holding arm 30 has an encoder 35 for outputting position information.
Is attached. Encoder 35 of each movable part 31
The three-dimensional position of the ultrasonic probe 1 can be measured based on a plurality of pieces of position information output from.

By using the measured three-dimensional position of the ultrasonic probe 1, for example, it is possible to perform photographing while constantly monitoring (monitoring) the position of the probe, and to automatically detect a displacement or the like of the probe position. It becomes possible. In addition, images obtained at a plurality of imaging positions can be combined with high accuracy, and a wide range of diagnostic images can be obtained. The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be implemented with various modifications.

[0027]

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of obtaining a high-quality ultrasonic diagnostic image with less noise components.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows an ultrasonic probe 1 according to a first embodiment,
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a receiving circuit 2.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a transmission / reception circuit 21 according to the first embodiment, a diagram illustrating transmission ultrasonic pulses P1 to P4 and reflected waves W1 to W4, and conceptually illustrating integration of reflected waves W1 to W4. FIG.

FIG. 4 is an external view showing a configuration of a fixing mechanism of the ultrasonic probe 1 and a three-dimensional position measuring mechanism of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Ultrasonic probe 2 ... Transmission / reception part 3 ... Receiver 4 ... Operation processing part 5 ... Memory 6 ... Display processing part 7 ... Monitor

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic probe for transmitting a plurality of ultrasonic pulses to a same part of a subject at different times and receiving a plurality of reflected waves corresponding to the plurality of ultrasonic pulses; An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: an image processing unit that generates an ultrasonic diagnostic image of the subject based on a plurality of reflected waves of the same part obtained by an ultrasonic probe. 2. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic probe includes a plurality of ultrasonic transducers arranged in a two-dimensional array. 3. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a holding arm for stopping the ultrasonic probe at a required position during image acquisition. 4. An encoder which is attached to the holding arm and outputs position information, and detecting means for detecting a three-dimensional position of the ultrasonic probe based on the position information output by the encoder. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 3, wherein: