ULTRASOUND DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS

• US 20160199024A1
• Filed: 12/10/2015
• Published: 07/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Inc.
• Original Assignee: Konica Minolta Inc.
• Inventors: TAKEDA, Yoshihiro, TAKAGI, Kazuya, SHIKAMA, Jo, HORIUCHI, Makoto
• Granted Patent: US 10,639,003 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0841 for locating instruments
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4405 Device being mounted on a trolley
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4444 related to the probe
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5215 involving processing of medical diagnostic data
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus generating an ultrasound image of inside of a test object based on ultrasound signals reflected and received from the inside of the test object includes: a candidate region extracting unit which extracts a plurality of candidate detection regions in a needle position range corresponding to a position of a puncture needle inserted into the test object; a needle identification range setting unit which determines a needle identification range including the needle position range from the ultrasound image based on the extracted candidate detection regions; a needle position range estimating unit which determines an estimated range of the needle position range in the needle identification range based on a value indicating an aggregation state related to a distribution of the candidate detection regions in the needle identification range; and a needle emphasizing unit which performs a process for emphasizing the estimated range in the ultrasound image.

Claims

1. An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus generating an ultrasound image of inside of a test object based on ultrasound signals reflected and received from the inside of the test object, the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus comprising:

a candidate region extracting unit configured to extract a plurality of candidate detection regions in a needle position range corresponding to a position of a puncture needle inserted into the test object;

a needle identification range setting unit configured to determine a needle identification range including the needle position range from the ultrasound image based on the extracted candidate detection regions;

a needle position range estimating unit configured, to determine an estimated range of the needle position range in the needle identification range based on a value indicating an aggregation state related to a distribution of the candidate detection regions in the needle identification range; and

a needle emphasizing unit configured to perform a process for emphasizing the estimated range in the ultrasound image.

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

the value indicating the aggregation state includes the number of the candidate detection regions existing in the needle identification range, and

the estimated range is determined in accordance with the number of the candidate detection regions.

4. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the needle emphasizing unit performs weighting on a result of estimate of the estimated range in each region dividing the estimated range based on the value indicating the aggregation state, and performs a process for emphasizing inside of the estimated range with a degree of emphasis corresponding to the weighting.

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

the value indicating the aggregation state includes a value indicating a center position in the aggregation of the candidate detection regions existing in the needle identification range, and

the needle emphasizing unit performs the weighting, using a predetermined window function to reduce the weight at least on one side of the center position.

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

the value indicating the aggregation state includes variance among positions of the respective candidate detection regions in an aggregation of the candidate detection regions existing in the needle identification range,

the estimated range is determined in accordance with the variance, and

the variance is determined independently on either side of the center position.

7. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the center position is a weighted average position in the aggregation of the candidate detection regions existing in the needle identification range.

8. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the weighted average position is a position calculated in accordance with a distribution of the candidate detection regions weighted with values corresponding to intensities of the ultrasound signals in the candidate detection regions existing in the needle identification range.

9. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the candidate region extracting unit extracts the candidate detection regions based on a distribution of the ultrasound signals in an incident direction of ultrasound waves entering the test object.

10. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the needle identification range setting unit sets the needle identification range in the form of a straight line having neither end determined in the ultrasound image.

3. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to claim I, wherein

the value indicating the aggregation state includes variance among positions of the respective candidate detection regions in an aggregation of the candidate detection regions existing in the needle identification range, and

the estimated range is determined in accordance with the variance.