ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ACQUIRING ULTRASOUND DATA

• US 20080154133A1
• Filed: 09/19/2007
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2006
• 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: SHIKI, Eiichi
• Granted Patent: US 9,316,725 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/443
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/894 by rotation about a single axis
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8993 Three dimensional imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52034 Data rate converters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52077 with means for elimination of unwanted signals, e.g. noise or interference
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52085 Details related to the ultrasound signal acquisition, e.g. scan sequences control of medical diagnostic ultrasound devices A61B8/54
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52095 using multiline receive beamforming

Abstract

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus including an ultrasound probe configured to transmit toward and receive from a three-dimensional region of a subject, a transmitting and receiving unit configured to acquire ultrasound data by a plurality of executions of multibeam forming, comprising forming a plurality of sets of ultrasound data along a plurality of directions by a one-time transmitting and receiving operation of the ultrasound probe, a data synthesizing unit configured to synthesize a plurality of sets of data relating to the ultrasound data acquired during each of said executions, the sets being acquired along a respective plurality of different receiving directions with respect to a transmitting direction, to generate synthesized ultrasound data, and an image data generation unit configured to generate image data on the basis of the synthesized ultrasound data.

Claims

1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising:

an ultrasound probe configured to transmit toward and receive from a three-dimensional region of a subject;

a transmitting and receiving unit configured to acquire ultrasound data by a plurality of executions of multibeam forming, comprising forming a plurality of sets of ultrasound data along a plurality of directions by a one-time transmitting and receiving operation of the ultrasound probe;

a data synthesizing unit configured to synthesize a plurality of sets of data relating to the ultrasound data acquired during each of said executions, the sets being acquired along a respective plurality of different receiving directions with respect to a transmitting direction, to generate synthesized ultrasound data; and

an image data generation unit configured to generate image data on the basis of the synthesized ultrasound data.

2. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising;

a transmitting and receiving direction control unit configured to control directions for the multibeam forming in accordance with a scan direction and a slice direction which are perpendicular to a direction of ultrasound transmitting so that angular components of both the scan direction and the slice direction of neighboring two transmitting directions are different from each other.

3. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising;

a transmitting and receiving direction control unit configured to control the receiving and transmitting unit so as to execute a plurality of scans along a scan direction which is essentially perpendicular to a direction of ultrasound transmitting, the scans performed in different slice directions which are essentially perpendicular to the scan direction, the scans including transmitting having scan direction components varied by the scan and receiving for the multibeam forming;

wherein

the data synthesizing unit is configured to synthesize sets of ultrasound data relating to different scan and generate synthesized ultrasound data.

4. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

the transmitting and receiving direction control unit is configured to control the receiving and transmitting unit so as to scan a first slice by repeating four-beam multibeam having a predetermined spread along the scan direction and to scan a second slice by repeating said four-beam multibeam forming, the scan of said second slice being started from a position located one half of the predetermined spread from start position of the first slice; and

the data synthesizing unit is configured to synthesize 2 sets of ultrasound data for the multibeam forming of the first slice and synthesize 2 sets of ultrasound data for the multibeam forming of the second slice, the 2 sets of ultrasound data corresponding to the second slice relating to directions having essentially a same scan direction component as directions relating to the 2 sets of ultrasound data corresponding to the first slice.

5. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

the transmitting and receiving direction control unit is configured to control the receiving and transmitting unit so as to repeat transmitting and receiving for multibeam forming of n beams having a predetermined spread along the scan direction with respect to n slices, the n slices being respectively scanned from a direction varied by 1/n of the predetermined spread along the scan direction; and

the data synthesizing unit is configured to synthesize n sets of ultrasound data of the n slices each relating to a direction having essentially same scan direction component.

6. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the ultrasonic probe comprises:

array transducers arrayed along the scan direction; and

an oscillation movement mechanical unit configured to oscillate the array transducers in the slice direction.

7. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

the ultrasonic probe is a 2-dimensional array probe which has 2-dimensionally arrayed array transducers.

8. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising;

an ultrasound data processing unit configured to execute image processing which includes envelope detection and autocorrelation processing to ultrasound data outputted from the transmitting and receiving unit;

wherein

the data synthesizing unit is configured to synthesize ultrasound data outputted from the ultrasound data processing unit.

9. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising;

an ultrasound data handling unit configured to execute image processing which includes envelope detection and autocorrelation processing to ultrasound data outputted from the data synthesizing unit;

wherein

the data synthesizing unit is configured to synthesize ultrasound data outputted from the transmitting and receiving unit.

10. A method of acquiring ultrasound data comprising:

transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic signal toward and from a three-dimensional region of a subject;

acquiring ultrasound data by a plurality of executions of multibeam forming, comprising forming a plurality of sets of ultrasound data along a plurality of directions by a one-time transmitting and receiving operation;

synthesizing a plurality of sets of data relating to the ultrasound data acquired during said operations, the sets being acquired along a respective plurality of different receiving directions with respect to a transmitting direction, to generate synthesized ultrasound data; and

generating image data on the basis of the synthesized ultrasound data.

11. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, further comprising:

controlling directions for the multibeam forming in accordance with a scan direction and a slice direction which are perpendicular to a direction of ultrasound transmitting so that angular components of both the scan direction and the slice direction of two neighboring transmitting directions are different from each other.

12. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, wherein:

the transmitting and receiving comprises executing a plurality of scans along a scan direction which is essentially perpendicular to a direction of ultrasound transmitting, the scans being performed in different slice directions which are essentially perpendicular to the scan direction, the scans including transmitting having scan direction components varied by the scan and receiving for the multibeam forming; and

the data synthesizing includes synthesizing sets of ultrasound data relating to different scans and generating synthesized ultrasound data.

13. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 12, wherein:

controlling directions comprises scanning a first slice by repeating four-beam multibeam forming having a predetermined spread along the scan direction and scanning a second slice by repeating said four-beam multibeam forming, wherein scanning the second slice starts at a position located a half of the predetermined spread from a start position of the first slice; and

synthesizing ultrasound data comprises synthesizing 2 sets of ultrasound data for one multibeam forming of the first slice and synthesizing 2 sets of ultrasound data for one multibeam forming of the second slice, the 2 sets of the ultrasound data corresponding to the second slice relating to directions having essentially same scan direction component as directions relating to the 2 sets of the ultrasound data corresponding to the first slice.

14. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 12, wherein:

controlling directions comprises controlling transmitting and receiving n beams having a predetermined spread along the scan direction toward and from n slices, the n slices being scanned from a direction varied by 1/n of the predetermined spread along the scan direction; and

the synthesizing ultrasound data comprises synthesizing n sets of ultrasound data of the n slices each relating to a direction having essentially a same scan direction component.

15. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 12, wherein:

transmitting and receiving comprises using array transducers arrayed along the scan direction and oscillating the array transducers in the slice direction.

16. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 12, wherein:

transmitting and receiving using a 2-dimensional array probe that has 2-dimensional arrayed array transducers.

17. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, further comprising;

executing image processing comprising envelope detection and autocorrelation processing to ultrasound data outputted by the transmitting and receiving step;

wherein

synthesizing ultrasound data comprises synthesizing ultrasound data outputted by the image processing.

18. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, further comprising;

executing image processing comprising envelope detection and autocorrelation processing to ultrasound data outputted by the synthesizing ultrasound data step;

wherein

the step of synthesizing ultrasound data comprises synthesizing ultrasound data outputted by the transmitting and receiving step.

19. A method of acquiring ultrasound data comprising:

transmitting a first plurality of ultrasonic signals toward a subject along a scanning direction;

acquiring ultrasonic data from each of a second plurality of different directions along said scanning direction for each of said first plurality of ultrasonic beams, to form a first plurality of sets of data;

synthesizing the ultrasonic data in each of said sets to produce synthesized ultrasound data; and

generating image data on the basis of the synthesized ultrasound data.

20. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 19, comprising:

controlling directions of said plurality of ultrasonic signals in accordance with said scanning direction and a slice direction such that angular components of both the scan direction and the slice direction of two neighboring transmitting directions are different from each other.

21. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 20, wherein:

controlling directions comprises scanning a first slice by repeating four-beam multibeam forming having a predetermined spread along the scanning direction and scanning a second slice by repeating said four-beam multibeam forming, wherein scanning the second slice starts at a position located a half of the predetermined spread from a start position of the first slice; and

synthesizing ultrasound data comprises synthesizing 2 sets of ultrasound data for one multibeam forming of the first slice and synthesizing 2 sets of ultrasound data for one multibeam forming of the second slice, the 2 sets of the ultrasound data corresponding to the second slice relating to directions having essentially same scanning direction component as directions relating to the 2 sets of the ultrasound data corresponding to the first slice.

22. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 20, wherein:

controlling directions comprises controlling n ultrasonic signals having a predetermined spread along the scanning direction toward and from n slices, the n slices being scanned from a direction varied by 1/n of the predetermined spread along the scanning direction; and

synthesizing the ultrasound data comprises synthesizing n sets of ultrasound data of the n slices each relating to a direction having essentially a same scanning direction component.