Ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus and ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus control method

• US 20050203406A1
• Filed: 02/24/2005
• Published: 09/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Kamiyama, Naohisa
• Granted Patent: US 8,360,980 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/458
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/06 Measuring blood flow measuring volume flow in general G01F, e.g. G01F1/66, G01F1/72; measuring speed of fluids in general G01P5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/13 Tomography A61B8/10, A61B8/12 take precedence; tomography for radiation diagnosis A61B6/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/481 involving the use of contrast agent, e.g. microbubbles introduced into the bloodstream analysis of echo signal exploiting properties of a contrast enhancer in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52039

Abstract

After executing a second transmission constituting an ultrasonic wave of an amount of one frame from an ultrasonic wave having a high sound pressure of destructing bubbles in a predetermined section for making a blood stream image or a tissue image in a circulation image of a blood stream disappear by making the bubbles in the predetermined section disappear, there is carried out a third transmission by an ultrasonic wave having a low sound pressure of not substantially destructing the bubbles for acquiring the circulation image of the blood stream with regard to the predetermined section. The first transmission is executed by the ultrasonic wave for making a portion of the blood stream image in the circulation image disappear by making the bubbles at the predetermined region present in the predetermined section disappear as necessary while executing the third transmission.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus for acquiring an ultrasonic image by scanning a predetermined portion of a subject administered with bubbles of a contrast medium by an ultrasonic wave, said ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprising:

an ultrasonic probe for transmitting the ultrasonic wave to the subject and receiving an echo signal from the subject;

a signal generating unit for generating a drive signal for driving the ultrasonic probe; and

a controller for controlling the drive signal generating unit to execute a scan of a section by repeating a first ultrasonic wave transmission including an ultrasonic wave having a sound pressure to a degree of not substantially destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium for acquiring a circulation image of a blood stream with regard to a predetermined section and an ultrasonic wave having a sound pressure to a degree of destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium for destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium at part of a desired blood vessel and restraining the contrast medium from flowing into the desired blood vessel.

2. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the drive signal generating unit to switch to execute a second ultrasonic wave transmission constituting an ultrasonic wave having a sound pressure to a degree of destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium for destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium in almost whole area of the section.

3. The ultrasonic wave diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the drive signal generating unit to execute by a plurality of times a third ultrasonic wave transmission constituting an ultrasonic wave having a sound pressure to a degree of not substantially destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium for acquiring a circulation image of a blood stream with regard to a predetermined section, further comprising:

a display unit for displaying a difference image or a superposed image of a first ultrasonic wave image provided by the first ultrasonic wave transmission and a third ultrasonic wave image provided by the third ultrasonic wave transmission.

4. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the display unit further comprises;

a display unit for generating a plurality of frames of ultrasonic wave images by successively executing a brightness value holding operation by using an amount of a plurality of frames of the difference images by using the first ultrasonic wave images and the third ultrasonic wave images.

5. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising:

a storing unit for storing the first ultrasonic wave image provided by the first ultrasonic wave transmission and the third ultrasonic wave image provided by the third ultrasonic transmission by attaching identifiers respectively capable of identifying the first ultrasonic wave and the third ultrasonic image thereto.

6. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image generating unit for generating a plurality of frames of ultrasonic wave images by successively executing a brightness value holing operation based on the echo signals of an amount of a plurality of frames provided by the first ultrasonic wave transmission by the plurality of times.

7. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

an image generating unit for generating a plurality of frames of ultrasonic wave images by successively executing a brightness value holing operation based on the echo signals of an amount of a plurality of frames provided by the first ultrasonic wave transmission by the plurality of times;

wherein the image generating unit initializes the brightness value holding operation when the second ultrasonic wave transmission is executed.

8. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the brightness value holding operation is a maximum value holding operation for generating the image by selecting a maximum value of the echo signals at a spatially corresponding position in the plurality of frames.

9. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the brightness value holding operation is a maximum value holding operation for generating the image by selecting a maximum value of the echo signals at a spatially corresponding position in the plurality of frames.

10. The ultrasonic diagnosis according to claim 1, further comprising:

a display unit for displaying a region of irradiating an ultrasonic wave having a sound pressure to a degree of destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium when the first ultrasonic wave transmission is executed, in the first ultrasonic wave image provided by the first ultrasonic wave transmission.

11. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image generating unit for generating a first image of restraining the contrast medium from flowing into a desired blood vessel based on the echo signal provided by the first ultrasonic transmission and a third image of not restraining the contrast medium from flowing into the desired blood vessel based on the echo signal provided by the third ultrasonic wave transmission; and

a display unit for displaying an ultrasonic wave image in which a color tone of the desired one of the blood vessel is changed by converting the first image and the third image RGB values of at least one of which is changed.

12. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an instructing unit for instructing ON/OFF of the first ultrasonic wave transmission;

wherein the controller controls ON/OFF of the first ultrasonic wave transmission in response to an instruction from the instructing unit.

13. The ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a designating unit for designating at least a portion of a transmitted region for restraining the contrast medium from flowing thereinto in the first transmission.

14. An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus for acquiring an ultrasonic wave image by scanning a predetermined portion of a subject administered with bubbles of a contrast medium by an ultrasonic wave, said ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprising:

an ultrasonic probe for transmitting the ultrasonic wave to a transmitted region of the subject and receiving an echo signal from the subject;

a signal generating unit for generating a drive signal for driving the ultrasonic probe; and

a controller for controlling the signal generating unit to repeatedly execute an ultrasonic wave transmission having a sound pressure to a degree of not substantially destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium for acquiring a circulation image of a blood stream with regard to the transmitted region and an ultrasonic wave transmission for making the bubbles of the contrast medium present at least a portion of the transmitted region disappear by a sound pressure to a degree of destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium to restrain the contrast medium from flowing into a desired blood vessel.

15. A method of controlling an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus for acquiring an ultrasonic wave image by scanning a predetermined portion of a subject administered with bubbles of a contrast medium by an ultrasonic wave, said method comprising the steps of:

generating a drive signal for driving an ultrasonic probe for transmitting the ultrasonic wave to the subject and receiving an echo signal from the subject; and

controlling the drive signal generating unit to execute by a plurality of times a first ultrasonic wave transmission constituting an ultrasonic wave of an amount of one frame from an ultrasonic wave having a sound pressure to a degree of not substantially destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium for acquiring a circulation image of a blood stream with regard to a predetermined section and an ultrasonic wave having a sound pressure to a degree of destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium for making at least a portion of the bubbles of the contrast medium present at the predetermined section disappear and restraining the contrast medium from flowing into a desired blood vessel.

16. A method of controlling an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus for acquiring an ultrasonic wave image by scanning a predetermined portion of a subject administered with bubbles of a contrast medium by an ultrasonic wave, said method comprising the steps of:

generating a drive signal for driving an ultrasonic probe for transmitting the ultrasonic wave to a transmitted region of the subject and receiving an echo signal from the subject; and

controlling the signal generating unit to repeatedly execute an ultrasonic wave transmission having a sound pressure to a degree of not substantially destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium for acquiring a circulation image of a blood stream with regard to the transmitted region and an ultrasonic wave transmission for making the bubbles of the contrast medium present at least a portion of the transmitted region disappear by a sound pressure to a degree of destructing the bubbles of the contrast medium to restrain the contrast medium from flowing into a desired blood vessel.