ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC DEVICE, METHOD FOR GENERATING IMAGE FOR EVALUATING DISORDER OF PART TO BE DIAGNOSED OF OBJECT, AND PROGRAM FOR GENERATING IMAGE FOR EVALUATING DISORDER OF PART TO BE DIAGNOSED OF OBJECT

• US 20120209115A1
• Filed: 10/15/2010
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Medical Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Medical Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Tonomura, Akiko
• Application Number:
  US13/500,991
• Publication Number:
  US 20120209115A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/438
• 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 8/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display composite display in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52074
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/485 involving measuring strain or elastic properties
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52036 using analysis of echo signal for target characterisation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52042 determining elastic properties of the propagation medium or of the reflective target diagnostic techniques involving the measurement of strain A61B8/485
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52071 Multicolour displays; using colour coding; Optimising colour or information content in displays, e.g. parametric imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52074 Composite displays, e.g. split-screen displays; Combination of multiple images or of images and alphanumeric tabular information

Abstract

An ultrasonic diagnostic device is provided with: an ultrasonic probe which transmits and receives ultrasonic waves to and from an object; a reception processing unit which receives a reflection echo signal measured by the ultrasonic probe and generates RF signal frame data relating to a cross-sectional plane of a part to be diagnosed of the object; a displacement measurement unit which measures the displacements of tissue at a plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane and generates displacement frame data, an elasticity information calculation unit which calculates elasticity information indicating the hardness or softness of the tissue at the plurality of measurement points and generates elasticity frame data; a unit for generating image which generates histograms of the displacements and/or the elasticity information of the tissue at the plurality of measurements points at different times; and an image display which displays the histograms generated at the different times.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic diagnostic device, comprising:

an ultrasonic probe for transmitting/receiving ultrasonic waves to/from an object;

reception processing unit for receiving a reflection echo signal measured by the ultrasonic probe and generating RF signal frame data at a cross-sectional plane of a part to be diagnosed of the object;

displacement measurement unit for, on the basis of one pair of pieces of RF signal frame data having different states of pressing against a tissue at the cross-sectional plane, measuring displacements of the tissue at a plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane and generating displacement frame data;

elasticity information calculation unit for, on the basis of the generated displacement frame data, calculating pieces of elasticity information indicating hardness or softness of the tissue at the plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane and generating elasticity frame data;

evaluation image generating unit for generating, as an image for evaluation for evaluating the degree of a disorder of the part to be diagnosed of the object, histograms of at least one of the displacements and the pieces of elasticity information of the tissue at the plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane at different times; and

an image display which displays the histograms at the different times.

2. The ultrasonic diagnostic device according to claim 1, wherein

the evaluation image generating unit arranges, in time series, a histogram generated for the part to be diagnosed of the object and a histogram previously generated for the same part to be diagnosed of the object and stored in a memory and displays the histograms on the image display.

3. The ultrasonic diagnostic device according to claim 2, wherein

the histogram previously generated and stored in the memory is a histogram created for the same part to be diagnosed of the object before treatment of the disorder and stored in the memory or a histogram generated for the same part to be diagnosed of the object at the time of a previous diagnosis and stored in the memory.

4. The ultrasonic diagnostic device according to claim 3, wherein

the memory stores a model histogram generated in advance so as to correspond to the degree of the disorder of the part to be diagnosed of the object, and

the model histogram is displayed together with the plurality of histograms.

5. The ultrasonic diagnostic device according to claim 3, wherein

the memory stores a model histogram generated in advance so as to correspond to the degree of the disorder of the part to be diagnosed of the object, and

a coefficient of correlation with the model histogram is obtained and displayed for each of the plurality of histograms.

6. The ultrasonic diagnostic device according to claim 1, wherein

the evaluation image generating unit includes statistical processing unit for calculating a piece of statistical processing data of the at least one of the displacements and the pieces of elasticity information of the tissue at the plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane and displays respective pieces of statistical processing data in association with the plurality of histograms.

7. The ultrasonic diagnostic device according to claim 6, wherein

the piece of statistical processing data is at least one of an average value, a median, a mode value, a maximum value, a minimum value, a variance, a standard deviation, and a quartile,

if a piece of statistical processing data selected via an input interface is any one of an average value, a median, a mode value, a maximum value, and a minimum value, an image indicating a position corresponding to the selected piece of statistical processing data is displayed for each of the plurality of histograms, and

if the piece of statistical processing data selected via the input interface is any one of a variance, a standard deviation, and a quartile, an image indicating a section corresponding to the selected piece of statistical processing data is displayed for each of the plurality of histograms.

8. The ultrasonic diagnostic device according to claim 2, comprising:

elasticity image generation unit for generating an elasticity image on the basis of the elasticity frame data and displaying the elasticity image on the image display, wherein

the evaluation image generating unit displays an elasticity image generated for the part to be diagnosed of the object and an elasticity image previously generated for the same part to be diagnosed of the object and stored in the memory in association with each of the plurality of histograms and displays an image indicating a position corresponding to a displacement or a piece of elasticity information at a point selected on the displayed elasticity images via the input interface on the corresponding histogram.

9. The ultrasonic diagnostic device according to claim 1, wherein

a color map with hues corresponding to respective magnitudes of displacements or pieces of elasticity information of each of the plurality of histograms is displayed together with the histogram, and

the evaluation image generating unit displays a proportion of a frequency of displacements or pieces of elasticity information within a preset range or a range set via the input interface of each of the color maps to a total frequency.

10. An ultrasonic diagnostic device, comprising:

an ultrasonic probe which transmits/receives ultrasonic waves to/from an object;

reception processing unit for receiving a reflection echo signal measured by the ultrasonic probe and generating RF signal frame data at a cross-sectional plane of a part to be diagnosed of the object;

displacement measurement unit for, on the basis of one pair of pieces of RF signal frame data having different states of pressing against a tissue at the cross-sectional plane, measuring displacements of the tissue at a plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane and generating displacement frame data;

elasticity information calculation unit for, on the basis of the generated displacement frame data, calculating pieces of elasticity information indicating hardness or softness of the tissue at the plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane and generating elasticity frame data;

evaluation image generating unit for generating, as an image for evaluation for evaluating the degree of a disorder of the part to be diagnosed of the object, a histogram of at least one of the displacements and the pieces of elasticity information of the tissue at the plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane; and

an image display which displays the histogram, wherein

the evaluation image generating unit includes statistical processing unit for calculating a piece of statistical processing data of the at least one of the displacements and the pieces of elasticity information of the tissue at the plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane and displays the piece of statistical processing data in association with the histogram.

11. The ultrasonic diagnostic device according to claim 10, wherein

the piece of statistical processing data is at least one of an average value, a median, a mode value, a maximum value, a minimum value, a variance, a standard deviation, and a quartile,

if a piece of statistical processing data selected via an input interface is any one of an average value, a median, a mode value, a maximum value, and a minimum value, an image indicating a position corresponding to the selected piece of statistical processing data is displayed for the histogram, and

if the piece of statistical processing data selected via the input interface is any one of a variance, a standard deviation, and a quartile, an image indicating a section corresponding to the selected piece of statistical processing data is displayed for the histogram.

12. A method for generating an image for evaluating a disorder of a part to be diagnosed of an object, comprising:

receiving a reflection echo signal measured by an ultrasonic probe which transmits/receives ultrasonic waves to/from the object and generating RF signal frame data at a cross-sectional plane of the part to be diagnosed of the object;

measuring displacements of the tissue at a plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane and generating displacement frame data, on the basis of one pair of pieces of RF signal frame data having different states of pressing against a tissue at the cross-sectional plane;

calculating pieces of elasticity information indicating hardness or softness of the tissue at the plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane and generating elasticity frame data, on the basis of the generated displacement frame data;

generating, as an image for evaluation for evaluating the degree of the disorder of the part to be diagnosed of the object, histograms of at least one of the displacements and the pieces of elasticity information of the tissue at the plurality of measurement points of the cross-sectional plane at different times; and

displaying the histograms at the different times on an image display.

13. The method for generating the image for evaluating the disorder of the part to be diagnosed of the object, according to claim 12, wherein

displaying the histograms comprises arranging, in time series, a histogram generated for the part to be diagnosed of the object and a histogram previously generated for the same part to be diagnosed of the object and stored in a memory and displaying the histograms on the image display.

14. (canceled)

15. (canceled)