JP2000325351A - Ultrasound diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To output ultrasonic image information to the outside so that the same image quality is obtained even when observed in the environment of the other party. SOLUTION: Ultrasound image information to be displayed on an image monitor device 19 is taken into a CPU 21 from a display image generation unit 18, and the ultrasonic image information is obtained using a conversion table extracted from a conversion table unit 23 via a conversion table control unit 22. After converting the sound wave image information, the recording device 26 or the telephone modem 2
7 is output.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic wave for projecting an ultrasonic beam into a subject (living body), receiving a reflected wave thereof, and imaging the reflected state to diagnose a state in a living tissue. It relates to a diagnostic device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, collected image information is not only displayed on an image monitor device unique to the apparatus and used for observation, but also output to a removable storage medium such as a floppy disk or a magneto-optical disk. Or a function of outputting to a remote system through a communication line. In this case, the format of the file system of the image information is generally a BMP or JPEG system which is a de facto standard.

[0003]

However, the ultrasound image information passed in a virtually standard format is
When displayed on other general systems such as a personal computer, the image often has a different impression from the image displayed on the original ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and this is a problem. ing. This is because the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is specially configured so as to be optimal for observing an ultrasonic image. That is, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is often observed in a dark room in a hospital where the illumination is turned off, and the image monitor apparatus is provided with a filter for making it easy to see the ultrasonic image. Therefore, when an ultrasonic image is displayed by a normal system that does not have such an environment, the brightness data appears small, giving a different impression, which is not suitable for diagnosis.

[0004] In view of the above, the present invention has been improved so that there is no difference in the quality of the displayed image between the case where the ultrasonic image is delivered to a general system and displayed, and the case where it is displayed by an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. It is an object to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, means for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, means for processing received ultrasonic signals to obtain image data, Image display means for displaying an image based on the image data, image data conversion means for converting the image data in consideration of being displayed in another system environment, and outputting the converted image data to the outside And means are provided.

The image data conversion means converts the image data in consideration of the time when the converted image data is displayed under the environment of another general system. That is, conversion is performed so that the image can be displayed under the environment so that there is no difference in quality between the image displayed by the image display unit of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and the image displayed. Since such converted image data is output, when the image data is transferred to another system through a removable storage medium or a communication line and displayed, the same as when the image data is displayed on the image display unit of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. And appropriate diagnosis is possible.

[0007]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention includes a probe 11 that emits and receives an ultrasonic wave. The probe 11 has a number of ultrasonic transducer elements arranged in an array. The beam former 12
By controlling the drive delay time of each of the ultrasonic transducer elements of the probe 11 under the control of the CPU 21, the direction and the focus of the synthesized beam of the ultrasonic waves generated from these many ultrasonic transducer elements at the same time. And the direction and focus of the composite received ultrasonic beam are determined by controlling the delay time of the received signal of the ultrasonic wave received by each of the multiple ultrasonic transducer elements.

The received signal of the received combined ultrasonic beam obtained from the beam former 12 is sent to a signal processing unit 13 for processing. The beamformer 12 is controlled by the CPU 21 so as to scan a plane on which a synthesized ultrasonic beam to be transmitted and received next is located. Thus, the probe 11 is applied to the surface of the subject (living body), and a specific cross section inside the subject is scanned with the synthetic ultrasonic beam to obtain image information on the ultrasonic reflection at the cross section in the living tissue. Can be. This image information is sent from the signal processing unit 13 to the image memory unit 15.

The ultrasonic image information stored in the image memory unit 15 is sent to the display image generation unit 18 together with the character information from the character memory unit 16 and the graphic information from the graphic memory unit 17 to display the one to be displayed. It is generated as a single image. The image generated by the display image generator 18 is sent to the image monitor 19 and displayed. As a result, the image monitor device 19 displays the name of the subject (patient), characters such as date, graphics such as lines, and the like together with the ultrasonic image. The character memory unit 16 and the graphic memory unit 17 are controlled by the memory control unit 14 together with the image memory unit 15, and the memory control unit 14 is controlled by the CPU 21.

A keyboard 24 and a trackball 25 (or a mouse or the like) are connected to the CPU 21. By operating these, information such as a patient's name and date is input, and scanning with an ultrasonic beam is performed. A part is input, or commands for various image operations are input. Further, a recording device 26 for recording on a removable storage medium such as a floppy disk recording device or a magneto-optical recording device is connected to the CPU 21, and a telephone modem 27 (or a network connection device) connected to a telephone line. Is connected.

When the user operates the keyboard 24 or the trackball 25 to output image information displayed on the image monitor device 19 to the outside, that is, outputs the image information to the recording device 26 or another computer via the telephone modem 27. When the image information is to be sent to the system, the image information is fetched from the display image generation unit 18 into the CPU 21, converted, and output. That is, the conversion table control unit 22 is controlled by the CPU 21, the conversion table is read from the conversion table unit 23, and the image information is converted based on the conversion table.

The conversion table section 23 has, for example, an SR
It is composed of a semiconductor memory such as an AM or a ROM, in which a conversion table for luminance information and the like are stored. This conversion table is not limited to a single conversion table, and several types can be stored. For example, one that converts image information so that it can be displayed most clearly when displayed on a liquid crystal display, one that converts image information optimally for display on a CRT display, and usage environment such as room brightness. What is determined for each is kept.

When the image monitor device 19 displays only black and white (gray) gradations, only a conversion table for luminance data may be prepared, but in the case of color display, R, G, B, etc. A conversion table for each of the color difference signals is stored.

These conversion tables can be stored in the ROM as fixed data, or can be stored in a battery-backable SRAM so that the user can freely change them. When the user changes the conversion table, the conversion table control unit 22 can be directly operated by inputting a conversion table change command from the keyboard 24 to change the content held in the conversion table unit 23. Alternatively, a separately prepared change utility software may be started up, the changed points may be input from the keyboard 24 or the like, and the contents held in the conversion table unit 23 may be changed via the conversion table control unit 22.

When outputting image information to the recording device 26 or the like,
When the display device in the computer system of use is known, a command is input from the keyboard 24 or the like to use a conversion table for liquid crystal display, for example, to convert the image information. 26 and a telephone modem 27. Therefore, a floppy disk or the like on which the converted image information is recorded is set in another personal computer or the like, and the image information is read and displayed, or the image information sent via a telephone line is used for other purposes. For example, when the image is displayed on a personal computer or the like, it is possible to display, on the liquid crystal display, an image having an image quality that gives exactly the same impression as when viewed on the image monitor device 19 of the original ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. .

The above description relates to one embodiment of the present invention, and it is a matter of course that the present invention is not limited to the description. For example, here, the image output to the outside is an image displayed on the image monitor device 19 and includes an ultrasonic image, a character, and graphics, but may be an ultrasonic image alone. Although the conversion table control unit 22 and the conversion table unit 23 are represented as separate hardware,
These functions can be realized by software. In this case, it is conceivable that some types of conversion tables are recorded in a hard disk recording device or the like and read into the main memory.

[0017]

As described above, according to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to obtain exactly the same impression as when observing the ultrasonic image displayed on the image monitor provided therein. The ultrasonic image information can be converted and output to an external device so that it can be displayed on another personal computer or the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 11 probe 12 beamformer 13 signal processing unit 14 memory control unit 15 image memory unit 16 character memory unit 17 graphic memory unit 18 display image generation unit 19 image monitoring device 21 CPU 22 conversion table control unit 23 conversion table unit 24 keyboard 25 track Ball 26 recording device 27 telephone modem

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, a means for processing received ultrasonic signals to obtain image data, an image display means for displaying an image based on the image data, and transmitting the image data to another system environment. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: image data conversion means for performing conversion in consideration of display below; and means for outputting the converted image data to the outside.