Ultrasonic Diagnostic Apparatus

• US 20080103392A1
• Filed: 12/19/2005
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Inc.
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Seki, Takao, Kato, Makoto, Suzuki, Takao, Watanabe, Yoshinobu, Tannaka, Yoshinao, Hagiwara, Hisashi
• Granted Patent: US 9,380,994 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/437
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/08 Detecting organic movements or changes, e.g. tumours, cysts, swellings A61B8/02 - A61B8/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/44 Constructional features of the ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic diagnostic device

Abstract

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention includes: a transmitting section, which drives a probe that transmits an ultrasonic wave toward a subject; a receiving section, which receives an ultrasonic echo, produced by getting the ultrasonic wave reflected by the subject, through the probe, thereby generating a received signal; a property value calculating section for calculating property values of the subject based on the received signal over a period of time; a stability estimating section for sequentially estimating the degrees of stability of the property values that have been calculated over the period of time; and a presenting section for presenting the degrees of stability thereon.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

a transmitting section, which drives a probe that transmits an ultrasonic wave toward a subject;

a receiving section, which receives an ultrasonic echo, produced by getting the ultrasonic wave reflected by the subject, through the probe, thereby generating a received signal;

a tomographic image processing section for generating a tomographic image of the subject based on the received signal;

a property value calculating section for calculating property values of the subject based on the received signal over a period of time;

a property value image processing section for generating a property value image representing the distribution of property values based on the property values;

a stability estimating section for calculating either the variance or the standard deviation of a plurality of property values that have been calculated over the period of time at a predetermined spot of interest, or in a predetermined region of interest, of the subject, and sequentially estimating the degrees of stability based on the variance or the standard deviation;

an image synthesizing section, which synthesizes the tomographic image and the property value image together, thereby generating data for a synthetic image; and

a display section for presenting the synthetic image and the degrees of stability thereon,

wherein the image synthesizing section receives the degree of stability from the stability estimating section and changes the modes of presentation of at least one of the tomographic image and the property value image according to the degree of stability.

2-3. -3. (canceled)

4. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the stability estimating section further generates rating images representing the degrees of stability and the display section presents the rating images thereon.

5. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 4, wherein the stability estimating section further generates an image representing the maximum value of the degrees of stability that have been calculated sequentially and the display section presents the image representing the maximum value.

6. (canceled)

7. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image synthesizing section synthesizes the tomographic image and the property value image together such that corresponding spots of interest agree with each other, and changes the degrees of transparency of the tomographic image or the property value image according to the degree of stability when the two images are superposed one upon the other.

8. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image synthesizing section receives an electrocardiogram of the subject, synthesizes the electrocardiogram, the tomographic image and the property value image together, and changes the modes of presentation of the electrocardiogram according to the degree of stability.

9. (canceled)

10. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

a transmitting section, which drives a probe that transmits an ultrasonic wave toward a subject;

a receiving section, which receives an ultrasonic echo, produced by getting the ultrasonic wave reflected by the subject, through the probe, thereby generating a received signal;

a property value calculating section for calculating property values of the subject based on the received signal over a period of time;

a stability estimating section for calculating either the variance or the standard deviation of a plurality of property values that have been calculated over the period of time at a predetermined spot of interest, or in a predetermined region of interest, of the subject, and sequentially estimating the degrees of stability based on the variance or the standard deviation; and

a presenting section for presenting the degrees of stability thereon,

wherein the presenting section is an acoustic transducer and transforms an electrical signal, which has been generated based on the degree of stability, into a sound.

11. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an input section for defining a region of interest on the tomographic image,

wherein the image synthesizing section changes the modes of presentation of the region of interest on the tomographic image according to the degree of stability.