Ultrasonic imaging apparatus for color display of flow velocity
First Claim
1. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising:
- ultrasonic transducer means for emitting an ultrasonic beam onto an object containing flow materials and for converting echoes of said beam from the object into echo signals;
calculation means for processing the echo signals output from said ultrasonic transducer means, for calculating a velocity of the flow materials from said echo signals, and for outputting a velocity signal corresponding to the calculated velocity;
zero shift means for zero-shifting, by a predetermined shift amount, the velocity signal output from said calculation means to produce a zero-shifted velocity signal; and
means for displaying in one of a plurality of color levels the zero-shifted velocity signal output from said zero shift means;
wherein at times when the velocity of the flow materials in one direction exceeds a display limit, the velocity signal corresponds to another velocity of the flow materials in an opposite direction within the display limit, and the production of the zero-shifted velocity signal prevents the display of a color level corresponding to said another velocity in the opposite direction.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprises an ultrasonic transducer for emitting an ultrasonic beam onto an interest region of a living body containing a blood flow and outputting an echo signal, a correlation circuit for determining a correlation of the signals obtained from the ultrasonic transducer and a velocity calculation circuit for calculating the velocity of the blood flow from the correlation data obtained by the correlation circuit. A zero shift process circuit zero-shifts the velocity data obtained from the velocity calculation circuit and compresses the zero-shifted velocity data in correspondance with an amount of zero shift. The zero-shifted flow velocity data is displayed within a possible display range.
-
Citations
10 Claims
-
1. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising:
-
ultrasonic transducer means for emitting an ultrasonic beam onto an object containing flow materials and for converting echoes of said beam from the object into echo signals; calculation means for processing the echo signals output from said ultrasonic transducer means, for calculating a velocity of the flow materials from said echo signals, and for outputting a velocity signal corresponding to the calculated velocity; zero shift means for zero-shifting, by a predetermined shift amount, the velocity signal output from said calculation means to produce a zero-shifted velocity signal; and means for displaying in one of a plurality of color levels the zero-shifted velocity signal output from said zero shift means; wherein at times when the velocity of the flow materials in one direction exceeds a display limit, the velocity signal corresponds to another velocity of the flow materials in an opposite direction within the display limit, and the production of the zero-shifted velocity signal prevents the display of a color level corresponding to said another velocity in the opposite direction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
-
-
4. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising:
-
ultrasonic transducer means for emitting an ultrasonic beam onto a region of interest of a living body containing a blood flow and for converting echoes of said beam from the object into echo signals; Doppler processing means coupled to said ultrasonic transducer means for fast-Fourier transforming the echo signals to produce Doppler data; tomograph signal output means coupled to said transducer means for processing the echo signals and outputting tomographic image data; calculation means for processing the echo signals output from said ultrasonic transducer means, for calculating a velocity of the blood flow from the echo signals, and for outputting velocity data; shift data means for selectively producing shift data corresponding to one of a plurality of shift amounts; zero shift means for zero-shifting the velocity data output from said calculation means in accordance with the shift data produced from said shift data means to produce zero-shifted velocity data, for compressing the zero-shifted velocity data in accordance with the shift amount, and for outputting the compressed zero-shifted velocity data; a digital scan converter for receiving the Doppler data, the compressed zero-shifted velocity data, and the tomographic image data, and for selectively outputting the Doppler, compressed zero-shifted velocity, and tomographic image data; and means for displaying in one of a plurality of color levels the compressed zero-shifted velocity data from said digital scan converter, wherein the plurality of color levels corresponds to a first range of velocities of the blood flow for zero-shifted velocity data and corresponds to a second range of velocities wider than the first range for compressed zero-shifted velocity data; wherein at times when the velocity of the blood flow in one direction exceeds a display limit, the velocity data corresponds to another velocity of the blood flow in an opposite direction within the display limit, and the output of compressed zero-shifted velocity data prevents the display of a color level corresponding to said another velocity in the opposite direction. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
Specification