ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS

• US 20150094586A1
• Filed: 12/08/2014
• Published: 04/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: NISHIHARA, Kuramitsu, KAKEE, Akihiro
• Granted Patent: US 11,026,659 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/443
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/00 Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves imaging of objects using sonar G01S15/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/14 Echo-tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5207 involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data, e.g. for generating an image reconstruction G06T11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/895 characterised by the transmitted frequency spectrum
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52023 Details of receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52034 Data rate converters

Abstract

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to an embodiment includes a receiving unit and a changing unit. The receiving unit outputs an ultrasound received signal. The changing unit obtains, in accordance with a change in a spatial frequency of ultrasound image data subject to an imaging processing, a group of parameters related to a frequency characteristic of an imaging received signal that is output by the receiving unit as the ultrasound received signal to be used in the imaging processing and changes a center frequency and a frequency band to be used in the imaging processing performed on the imaging received signal, on a basis of the obtained group of parameters.

Claims

1. An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit that outputs an ultrasound received signal; and

a changing unit that obtains, in accordance with a change in a spatial frequency of ultrasound image data subject to an imaging processing, a group of parameters related to a frequency characteristic of an imaging received signal that is output by the receiving unit as the ultrasound received signal to be used in the imaging processing and that changes a center frequency and a frequency band to be used in the imaging processing performed on the imaging received signal, on a basis of the obtained group of parameters.

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

a parameter group storage unit storing therein groups of parameters related to frequency characteristics of each of ultrasound received signals corresponding to ultrasound transmission/reception conditions, wherein

the changing unit obtains the group of parameters corresponding to an ultrasound transmission/reception condition of the imaging received signal from the parameter group storage unit.

3. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the changing unit obtains the group of parameters of the imaging received signal by performing a frequency analysis on the imaging received signal.

4. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the changing unit determines a frequency of a reference signal to be used in a quadrature demodulation processing performed on the imaging received signal, as the center frequency to be used in the imaging processing, and

the changing unit determines a passband set as a result of the quadrature demodulation processing and a decimation processing performed on the imaging received signal, as the frequency band to be used in the imaging processing.

5. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the group of parameters includes at least one of the following:

an upper limit frequency of the ultrasound received signal;

a lower limit frequency of the ultrasound received signal; and

a peak frequency of the ultrasound received signal.

6. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in the case of receiving a setting request that involves a change in the spatial frequency, the changing unit changes the center frequency and the frequency band to be used in the imaging processing.

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

the changing unit determines a frequency band that includes the peak frequency of the imaging received signal and that does not break the upper limit frequency and the lower limit frequency of the imaging received signal, as the frequency band to be used in the imaging processing, and

the changing unit determines a center frequency of the determined frequency band, as the center frequency to be used in the imaging processing.