ULTRASOUND IMAGE CAPTURE DEVICE AND ULTRASOUND IMAGE CAPTURE METHOD
First Claim
1. An ultrasound imager comprising,an ultrasound probe configured to transmit an ultrasound wave to an examination target and receive an echo signal reflected from the examination target,a signal processor configured to process the echo signal received by the ultrasound probe, anda monitor configured to display a processing result from the signal processor,the signal processor comprising,an operation part configured to estimate blood-flow velocity information from the echo signal,an image former configured to display blood-flow information by mapping, on the basis of the blood-flow velocity information being estimated, andan estimator configured to obtain certainty of the blood-flow velocity information displayed by the mapping.
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Abstract
The present invention obtains certainty of the blood-flow velocity information that is estimated in the blood-flow mapping display. The signal processor in the ultrasound imager is provided with a Doppler velocity operation part configured to calculate a Doppler velocity from echo signals by using the Doppler effect, and a first blood-flow velocity operation part configured to generate a tissue tomographic image from the echo signals and calculate a blood-flow velocity of a predetermined portion from a motion of the tissue, on the basis of the tissue tomographic image. It is further provided with a second blood-flow velocity operation part configured to calculate the blood-flow velocity of the predetermined portion by using the Doppler velocity calculated by the Doppler velocity operation part. Then, a coincidence degree is calculated between the blood-flow velocity calculated by the first velocity operation part and the blood-flow velocity calculated by the second velocity operation part, as to the predetermined portion, and according to the coincidence degree, certainty/reliability of the blood-flow velocity information is obtained and displayed.
27 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An ultrasound imager comprising,
an ultrasound probe configured to transmit an ultrasound wave to an examination target and receive an echo signal reflected from the examination target, a signal processor configured to process the echo signal received by the ultrasound probe, and a monitor configured to display a processing result from the signal processor, the signal processor comprising, an operation part configured to estimate blood-flow velocity information from the echo signal, an image former configured to display blood-flow information by mapping, on the basis of the blood-flow velocity information being estimated, and an estimator configured to obtain certainty of the blood-flow velocity information displayed by the mapping.
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18. An ultrasound imaging method that forms a tomographic image by using ultrasound echo signals reflected from an examination target, and displays a blood-flow mapping, comprising the steps of,
calculating blood-flow velocity information from the echo signal and displaying the blood-flow velocity information by mapping, calculating a blood-flow velocity at a predetermined location by using the echo signal, according to a first method, calculating a blood-flow velocity at the predetermined location by using the echo signal, according to a second method, and calculating a coincidence degree between the blood-flow velocity calculated according to the first method and the blood-flow velocity calculated according to the second method, and obtaining certainty of the blood-flow velocity information displayed by the mapping on the basis of the coincidence degree.
Specification