ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20150025380A1
• Filed: 10/08/2014
• Published: 01/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Canon Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Takimoto, Masao, AZEGAMI, Mio, Kamiyama, Naohisa
• Application Number:
  US14/509,110
• Publication Number:
  US 20150025380A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/438
• 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 8/085 for locating body or organic structures, e.g. tumours, calculi, blood vessels, nodules
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0891 for diagnosis of blood vessels
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/14 Echo-tomography
• 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 8/488 involving Doppler signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5223 for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5246 combining images from the same or different imaging techniques, e.g. color Doppler and B-mode
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to an embodiment includes a transmitting and receiving unit, a detecting unit, and a chart display unit. The transmitting and receiving unit transmits an ultrasound pulse to a subject and receives an echo signal from the subject. The detecting unit detects thrombi that are present in the blood of the subject from the echo signal and generates numerical value information that quantifies a thrombus detection result. The chart display unit displays a chart indicating the thrombus detection result on a display unit, on the basis of the numerical value information.

Claims

1. An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus comprising:

a transmitting and receiving unit configured to transmit an ultrasound pulse to a subject and to receive an echo signal from the subject;

a detecting unit configured to detect thrombi that are present in blood of the subject from the echo signal and to generate numerical value information that quantifies a thrombus detection result; and

a chart display unit configured to display a chart indicating the thrombus detection result on a display unit, on a basis of the numerical value information.

2. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the chart display unit displays the chart indicating changes in the thrombi over a course of time, on the basis of the numerical value information.

3. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the chart display unit changes a scale along a time-axis direction of the chart, in accordance with a status of the thrombus detection by the detecting unit.

4. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the detecting unit detects a quantity of thrombi that are present in the blood of the subject from the echo signal and generates information about the quantity of thrombi as the numerical value information, and

the chart display unit displays at least one selected from the following:

a chart indicating temporal changes in the quantity of thrombi; and

a chart indicating temporal changes in an accumulated value of quantities of thrombi.

5. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the detecting unit detects an area of each of the thrombi that are present in the blood of the subject from the echo signal and generates information about the area of each of the thrombi as the numerical value information, and

on a basis of the information about the area of each of the thrombi, the chart display unit displays a chart indicating a distribution of sizes of the thrombi.

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

a receiving unit configured to receive a designation of a region in a B-mode image displayed on the display unit, wherein

the detecting unit detects the thrombi within the region.

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

a Doppler processing unit configured to output a Doppler waveform that indicates a flow rate of the blood of the subject, wherein

the chart display unit displays the chart indicating the changes in the thrombi over the course of time side by side with the Doppler waveform, while the chart and the Doppler waveform are in synchronization with each other on a time axis.

8. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive a designation of a region in a B-mode image displayed on the display unit, wherein

the detecting unit detects the thrombi within the region, and

the Doppler processing unit outputs a Doppler waveform that indicates a flow rate of bloodstream within the region.

9. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a detecting unit configured to detect thrombi that are present in blood of a subject from an echo signal obtained by an ultrasound diagnosis apparatus and to generate numerical value information that quantifies a thrombus detection result; and

a chart display unit configured to display a chart indicating the thrombus detection result on a display unit, on a basis of the numerical value information.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the chart display unit displays the chart indicating changes in the thrombi over a course of time, on the basis of the numerical value information.

11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the chart display unit changes a scale along a time-axis direction of the chart, in accordance with a status of the thrombus detection by the detecting unit.

12. The image processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein

the detecting unit detects a quantity of thrombi that are present in the blood of the subject from the echo signal and generates information about the quantity of thrombi as the numerical value information, and

the chart display unit displays at least one selected from the following:

a chart indicating temporal changes in the quantity of thrombi; and

a chart indicating temporal changes in an accumulated value of quantities of thrombi.

13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein

the detecting unit detects an area of each of the thrombi that are present in the blood of the subject from the echo signal and generates information about the area of each of the thrombi as the numerical value information, and

on a basis of the information about the area of each of the thrombi, the chart display unit displays a chart indicating a distribution of sizes of the thrombi.

14. The image processing apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive a designation of a region in a B-mode image displayed on the display unit, wherein

the detecting unit detects the thrombi within the region.

15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising:

a Doppler processing unit configured to output a Doppler waveform that indicates a flow rate of the blood of the subject, wherein

the chart display unit displays the chart indicating the changes in the thrombi over the course of time side by side with the Doppler waveform, while the chart and the Doppler waveform are in synchronization with each other on a time axis.

16. The image processing apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive a designation of a region in a B-mode image displayed on the display unit, wherein

the detecting unit detects the thrombi within the region, and

the Doppler processing unit outputs a Doppler waveform that indicates a flow rate of bloodstream within the region.

17. An image processing method comprising:

detecting thrombi that are present in blood of a subject from an echo signal obtained by an ultrasound diagnosis apparatus;

generating numerical value information that quantifies a thrombus detection result; and

displaying a chart indicating the thrombus detection result on a display unit, on a basis of the numerical value information.