ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC EQUIPMENT AND CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR

• US 20080221451A1
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: KANDA, Ryoichi
• Granted Patent: US 9,173,630 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/453
• 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 8/0883 for diagnosis of the heart

Abstract

Image data of the interior of a sample (S) are sequentially created on the basis of reception signals at the time when ultrasonic waves are transmitted into the sample (S) so as to scan the interior thereof, movements of respective control points set on the image data are tracked so as to evaluate temporal changes of velocities of motions of the sample (S), and differences of timings of the motions in the sample (S) are color-displayed on the basis of the temporal changes of the velocities.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment comprising:

a scan unit which transmits ultrasonic waves into a sample, which receives reflected waves from the sample, and which outputs reception signals; and

an arithmetic/display unit which evaluates temporal changes of velocities of motions of the sample on the basis of the reception signals outputted from the scan unit, and which displays differences of timings of the motions in the sample on the basis of the temporal changes of the velocities.

2. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, comprising:

an image data creation unit which sequentially creates image data of the interior of the sample on the basis of the reception signals outputted from the scan unit;

wherein the arithmetic/display unit sets control points on the image data sequentially created by the image data creation unit, it tracks movements of the control points on the sequentially created image data so as to evaluate the temporal changes of the velocities of the motions of the sample, and it displays the differences of the timings of the motions in the sample on the basis of the temporal changes of the velocities.

3. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein:

the image data creation unit creates the image data in a plurality of frames with lapse of time; and

the arithmetic/display unit sets pixels in the image data as the control points, it tracks movements of the control points on the image data of the respective frames as are created later, so as to evaluate the temporal changes of the velocities of the control points, and it displays the differences of the timings of the motions in the sample on the basis of the temporal changes of the velocities.

4. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein the arithmetic unit sets the control points at all pixels in the image data or some of the pixels.

5. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein:

the sample contains a tissue; and

the arithmetic/display unit includes;

a first process unit which evaluates individual peak positions of the temporal changes of the velocities of the motions of the tissue of the sample; and

a second process unit which evaluates the differences of the timings of the motions of the tissue on the basis of the individual peak positions evaluated by the first process unit, so as to display the differences of the timings of the motions.

6. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 5, comprising a color display unit which color-displays the differences of the timings of the motions of the tissue of the sample.

7. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 6, wherein:

the sample performs a contraction motion; and

the color display unit color-displays the differences of the timings of the motions of the tissue at individual parts of the sample as are based on the contraction motion of the sample.

8. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 5, wherein the first process unit evaluates centroids or standard deviations of the temporal changes of the velocities of the motions of the tissue of the sample.

9. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 6, comprising:

a display device;

wherein the color display unit displays an ultrasonic image on the display device on the basis of the image data sequentially created by the image data creation unit, and it presents the color display of the differences of the timings of the motions of the tissue in superposition on the ultrasonic image.

10. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment comprising:

a scan unit which transmits ultrasonic waves into a sample, which receives reflected waves from the sample, and which outputs reception signals; and

an arithmetic/display unit which detects velocities of motions of the sample on the basis of the reception signals outputted from the scan unit, which evaluates at least one sort of strain values, velocity gradient values and displacement values on the basis of the velocities of the motions of the sample, and which displays differences of timings of the motions in the sample on the basis of temporal changes of the evaluated values.

11. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 10, comprising:

an image data creation unit which sequentially creates image data of the interior of the sample in a plurality of frames on the basis of the reception signals outputted from the scan unit;

wherein the arithmetic/display unit sets pixels in the image data as control points, and it evaluates at least one sort of the strain values, the velocity gradient values and the displacement values of the control points on the image data of the respective frames as are created later.

12. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 10, wherein the arithmetic/display unit sets the control points at all pixels in the image data or some of the pixels.

13. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 10, wherein:

the arithmetic/display unit includes;

a first process unit which evaluates peak positions of the changes of at least one sort of the strain values, the velocity gradient values and the displacement values; and

a second process unit which evaluates the differences of the timings of the motions in the sample on the basis of the peak positions evaluated by the first process unit.

14. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 13, wherein the first process unit evaluates centroids or standard deviations of the changes of at least one sort of the strain values, the velocity gradient values and the displacement values.

15. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 13, comprising a color display unit which color-displays the differences of the timings of the motions of a tissue of the sample.

16. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 15, wherein:

the sample performs a contraction motion; and

the color display unit color-displays the differences of the timings of the motions of the tissue at individual parts of the sample as are based on the contraction motion of the sample.

17. An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 15, comprising:

a display device;

wherein the color display unit displays an ultrasonic image on the display device on the basis of the image data sequentially created by the image data creation unit, and it presents the color display of the differences of the timings of the motions of the tissue in superposition on the ultrasonic image.

18. A control method for an ultrasonic diagnostic equipment, comprising:

transmitting ultrasonic waves from a scan unit into a sample, receiving reflected waves from the sample, and outputting reception signals; and

evaluating temporal changes of velocities of motions of the sample on the basis of the reception signals outputted from the scan unit, and displaying differences of timings of the motions in the sample on the basis of the temporal changes of the velocities.

19. A control method for an ultrasonic diagnostic equipment, comprising:

transmitting ultrasonic waves from a scan unit into a sample, receiving reflected waves from the sample, and outputting reception signals;

detecting velocities of motions of the sample on the basis of the reception signals; and

evaluating at least one sort of strain values, velocity gradient values and displacement values on the basis of the detected velocities of the motions of the sample, and displaying differences of timings of the motions in the sample on the basis of temporal changes of the values.