JPH10305035A - Ultrasound diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of arbitrarily changing a color display specification on a user side. According to one embodiment, an ultrasonic image is scanned inside an object using an ultrasonic wave, an ultrasonic image is reconstructed based on an obtained echo signal, and at least one of luminance and color is displayed with a gradation. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is characterized in that the color map customizing unit 9 allows the user to change the specification of the gradation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of scanning the inside of a subject with ultrasonic waves, reconstructing an ultrasonic image of the inside based on the obtained echo signals, and applying gradations with luminance and color. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for displaying.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a continuous wave Doppler mode capable of measuring a maximum blood flow velocity or the like from a high-quality blood flow pattern or a blood flow at one point on a tomogram is selected, and the blood flow state at that point is described in detail. The implementation of pulse wave Doppler mode, which can observe the blood flow in detail, and Doppler mode, such as color flow mapping, which can observe the blood flow state in detail with a spatial spread, are progressing, so that the state of blood flow and organ movement can be easily observed in various forms. It is becoming.

Under these circumstances, the color specification, that is, how to display what pixel values are colored, is important from the viewpoint of the accuracy of diagnosis and the ease of diagnosis. It has become to.

In the color display, a serial signal converted to a video system by a digital scan converter is converted to a color signal of an RGB system or the like using a color map registered in a look-up table, and then converted to an analog signal by a digital-analog converter. This is done by returning to a signal and then supplying it to the display.

In other words, depending on how the color map is constructed,
The specifications for color display have changed. Conventionally, it is common practice to standardize this color map based on a needs survey and install it in a ROM in advance on the manufacturer side. Therefore, when the user wants to change the specification of the color display, it is very troublesome to replace the ROM.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of arbitrarily changing a color display specification on the user side.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the inside of a subject is scanned with ultrasonic waves, and an ultrasonic image of the inside is reconstructed based on the obtained echo signals. In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for displaying with gradation,
It is characterized in that the specification of the gradation can be changed on the user side.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present embodiment. This apparatus has an ultrasonic probe 2, a transmitting unit 3, a receiving unit 4, a B-mode processing unit 5, a color flow mapping processing unit 6, a display unit 7, a console 8, a color map customizing processor, and a system controller 1 as a control center. 9.

Here, for convenience of explanation, B mode (tomographic image) and color flow mapping (CFM)
Although only units 5 and 6 of two kinds of examination modes, ie, a mode (blood flow image), are shown, for example, the movement of each part on one line of the heart is displayed with the lapse of time to change the size of the heart and M mode for observing the speed of valve movement, etc.
Continuous wave Doppler mode that can measure the maximum blood flow velocity etc. from high-quality blood flow pattern, select one point blood flow on tomography,
Each processing unit, such as a pulse wave Doppler mode, which can observe the blood flow state at that point in detail, may be provided in appropriate combination. Since the configuration of these processing units may be a conventionally known one, the description is omitted here.

[0010] The ultrasonic probe 2 has a plurality of ultrasonic probes 2 arranged in order to mediate between an apparatus main body that handles electric signals and a subject side that applies amplitude modulation or frequency modulation to ultrasonic waves to give internal information. At its tip. The form of the probe 2 is arbitrarily selected from among sectors, linear, convex, and the like.

The transmitting unit 3 for transmitting ultrasonic waves from the ultrasonic probe 2 comprises a clock generator 31, a rate pulse generator 32, a transmission delay circuit 33, and a pulser. According to the clock oscillated from the clock generator 31, the rate pulse generator 32 outputs a rate pulse for determining the transmission rate of ultrasonic waves (the number of transmissions per second).

The rate pulse undergoes an appropriate delay necessary for determining the directivity of the ultrasonic wave in the transmission delay circuit 33, and is given to the pulser 34 as a trigger pulse. In synchronization with this trigger pulse, a high-frequency signal pulse is applied from the pulser 34 to the piezoelectric element of the probe 2 individually or in units of neighboring groups.

The piezoelectric element of the probe 2 vibrates in response to the signal pulse. Thereby, the ultrasonic wave is transmitted to the subject at the center frequency of the vibration. The ultrasonic wave propagates in the living body, and is reflected one after another at a discontinuous surface of acoustic impedance in the middle of the ultrasonic wave. The echo due to this reflection is probe 2
And vibrates the piezoelectric element. As a result, a weak electric signal is generated from the piezoelectric element.

The electric signal is taken into the receiving unit 4. The receiving unit 4 includes a preamplifier 41, a receiving delay circuit 42, and an adder 43. The electric signal from the probe 2 is first amplified by the preamplifier 41, subjected to an appropriate delay, for example, opposite to that at the time of transmission by the reception delay circuit 42, and then added by the adder. As a result, one reception signal having reception directivity is obtained.

The received signal is transmitted to the B mode processing unit 5
And the color flow mapping processing unit 6. The B mode processing unit 5 includes a detection circuit 5
1, a logarithmic amplifier 52, and an analog-to-digital converter (A / D / C) 53. Detection circuit 51
Detects a received signal and extracts a reflected component (echo signal). The echo signal is logarithmically amplified by a logarithmic amplifier 52, converted into a digital signal by an analog / digital converter 53, and output.

Color flow mapping processing unit 6
Is composed of a mixer 61, a low-pass filter 62, an analog-to-digital converter (A / D / C) 63, an MTI filter 64, an autocorrelator 65, and an operation unit 66.

The mixer 61 and the low-pass filter 62
The received signal is subjected to quadrature phase detection using a reference signal oscillating at the transmission frequency, and a bias component (Doppler signal) subjected to frequency shift is extracted from a moving body such as a blood cell or an organ wall. The Doppler signal is sampled by a digital-to-analog converter 63 at intervals of, for example, 0.5 mm for one scanning line according to a predetermined sampling frequency, converted into a digital signal, and sent to the MTI filter 64.

The MTI filter 64 removes a shift component (clutter component) relating to a moving object having a relatively slow moving speed such as a heart wall from the Doppler signal, and removes only a relatively fast moving speed component (blood flow component) such as blood cells. Is extracted. Then, the frequency of the blood flow component is obtained by the autocorrelator 65, and the arithmetic unit 66 uses the frequency to calculate the blood flow speed, the variance of the blood flow speed, and the signal intensity of the blood flow component that mainly reflects the blood flow ( Is calculated for each sample point.

The display unit 7 includes a digital scan converter (DSC) 71, a look-up table (LUT) 72, a digital-analog converter (DAC) 73, and a color display 74. It is composed of The image data from the B-mode processing unit 5 and the image data from the color flow mapping processing unit 6 are individually or appropriately combined by a digital-to-analog converter 73 to be converted into a video serial signal.

The serial signal is stored in a look-up table 72.
Is converted into a color signal such as RGB according to the color map of FIG. Thereby, the B-mode image and the color flow mapping image are individually or individually displayed on the color display 74.
The images are combined and displayed in color.

Color Map Customize Processor 9
Is a characteristic part of the present invention for realizing the function of customizing the color map of the lookup table 72.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the color map customizing processor 9. The color map customization processor 9 sends and receives input / output (I /
O) Interface 92, ROM 93, EEPROM
M94 and a hard disk drive (HDD) 95
And are connected.

The console 8 is connected to the processor 91 via an input / output interface 92. Various commands for the operator to execute the customization of the color map are supplied from the console 8 to the processor 91 via the input / output interface 92. Further, a digital scan converter 71 is connected to the processor 91 via an input / output interface 92 in order to display the screen signal for customization constituted by the processor 91.

Further, the look-up table 72 is connected to the processor 91 via an input / output interface 92 so that the color map of the look-up table 72 can be rearranged under the control of the processor 91.

In the ROM 93, several types of color map data standardized on the basis of an application program for color map customization and needs survey are installed in advance. An EEPROM 94 and a hard disk drive 95 are provided in the unit 9 in order to store the color map data arbitrarily customized by the operator using this program and to freely use it later.

As described above, in the color display, the serial signal converted to the video system by the digital scan converter 71 is converted into a color signal of the RGB system or the like using the color map of the look-up table 72, and The conversion is performed by returning to an analog signal by the analog converter 73 and supplying the analog signal to the display 74. Therefore, the color display specification can be changed by changing the manner of assembling the color map of the lookup table 72.

Next, the customization of the color map will be described. First, a customizing program is started by an appropriate key operation on the console 8 by an operator. Then, a customization screen as shown in FIG. 3 is first read from the ROM 93 and displayed on the display 74.

This customization screen is a right-hand work area 10 for changing various color display specifications and displaying various tools required to customize the color map.
1 to display a sample image 103 toned according to the changed color display specification so that the operator can visually recognize how the image is actually displayed in the changed color display specification. It is divided into a confirmation area 102 on the left side.

The sample image may be an actual ultrasonic image of a patient, or may be stored in a ROM in advance by the manufacturer.
It is also possible to freely select from standard ultrasonic images of various parts prepared in step 93.

FIG. 4 shows the work area of the customizing screen in detail. In the right area of the customization screen, a color scale 105 indicating the current color display specification and a circular color palette 106 to which gradation is given in color in the circumferential direction are simultaneously displayed. The function keys 112 to 115 arranged below are:
It supports customizing color maps (changing color display specifications), saving customized color maps, loading saved color maps, and exiting.

The two markers 107 and 108 on the side of the color scale 105 represent the range in which the color display specification is changed by the upper limit and the lower limit. The cursor 116 on the screen is moved by rolling the trackball 81 of the console 8 and clicking the control button 82 of the console 8 to move the scale 10.
5, and can be freely moved individually to set a desired specification change range.

The two markers 109 and 110 around the color pallet 106 correspond to the color scale 105.
Is assigned to the specification change range set by using, that is, the range of the color gradation to be newly replaced from the existing color gradation of this specification change range. The operator moves the cursor 116 on the customizing screen to the console 8. By rolling and moving the trackball 81 and clicking the control button 82 of the console 8, these markers 109 and 110 can be freely moved individually around the pallet 106, and the desired color and its gradation width can be changed. It can be set freely.

By such an operation, the color display specification is changed so as to best suit the operator's preference. Then, a color map is assembled according to the color display specifications, and the data is stored in the EEPROM 94 or the HDD 95 by clicking the function key 113.
Loading and utilizing this color map is performed by clicking the function key 114.

The processor 91 rearranges the color map of the look-up table 72 according to the loaded color map data. Thereby, the ultrasonic image can be displayed in color with the color display specification changed by the operator.

As described above, in this embodiment, the color map can be customized easily and easily, and the customized color map can be stored and used as appropriate. It is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be implemented with various modifications.

[0036]

According to the present invention, the inside of a subject is scanned with an ultrasonic wave, and an ultrasonic image inside the object is reconstructed based on the obtained echo signal, and gradation is added to at least one of luminance and color. In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for displaying the image, the user can change the specification of the gradation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a color map customizing unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view showing an example of a color map customizing screen displayed on the display of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a detailed view of a work area in FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... System controller, 2 ... Ultrasonic probe, 3 ... Transmission unit, 4 ... Receiving unit, 5 ... B mode processing unit, 6 ... Color flow mapping processing unit, 7 ... Display unit, 8 ... Console, 9 ... Color map customization Unit 31 clock generator 32 pulse pulse generator 33 transmission delay circuit 34 pulser 41 preamplifier 42 reception delay circuit 43 adder 51 detection circuit 52 logarithmic amplifier 53: analog-to-digital converter, 61: mixer, 62: low-pass filter, 63: analog-to-digital converter, 64: MTI filter, 65: autocorrelator, 66: arithmetic unit, 71: digital scan converter, 72: lookup table, 73 … Digital to analog converter, 74: color display, 91: processor, 92: input / output interface, 93: ROM, 94: EEPROM, 95: hard disk driver.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An ultra-sound that scans the inside of a subject with ultrasonic waves, reconstructs an ultrasonic image of the inside based on the obtained echo signals, and displays the images with gradations of at least one of luminance and color. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, wherein the user can change the gradation specification on the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. 2. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the gradation of the sample image is changed and displayed in real time according to the specification being changed. 3. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the changed specification can be stored. 4. A scale indicating the specifications before the change and a circular palette having gradations in the circumferential direction are simultaneously displayed,
2. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a specification change range is arbitrarily set on the scale, and a gradation range for giving gradation to the set specification change range can be arbitrarily set on the pallet.