Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus
First Claim
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1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising:
- means for repeatedly transmitting and receiving an ultrasound beam to and from an object of interest to repeatedly obtain an echo signal;
velocity calculating means for calculating a motion velocity for each time phase of a plurality of portions of said object on said ultrasound beam based on said echo signal;
tracking means based on said velocity for tracking a position of at least one specific portion of said plurality of portions as that position changes with the passage of time to obtain a path showing the movement over time of the position of said specific portion; and
display means for displaying said path or said position of the specific portion after movement.
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Abstract
An ultrasound beam is repeatedly transmitted and received to and from an object, so that an echo signal is repeatedly obtained. A velocity of each of a plurality of portions on the ultrasound beam is calculated based on the echo signal. A position of at least one specific portion of the plurality of portions is tracked in as it changes with the passage of time based on the velocity to obtain a path where the specific portion moves. Conventionally the change of brightness of the M-mode image was tracked to obtain the path. According to the present invention, since the path is obtained based on the velocity having high resolution, the accuracy of track can be improved.
136 Citations
31 Claims
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1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising:
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means for repeatedly transmitting and receiving an ultrasound beam to and from an object of interest to repeatedly obtain an echo signal; velocity calculating means for calculating a motion velocity for each time phase of a plurality of portions of said object on said ultrasound beam based on said echo signal; tracking means based on said velocity for tracking a position of at least one specific portion of said plurality of portions as that position changes with the passage of time to obtain a path showing the movement over time of the position of said specific portion; and display means for displaying said path or said position of the specific portion after movement. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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23. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising:
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means for repeatedly transmitting and receiving an ultrasound beam to and from an object to repetedly obtain and echo signal. velocity calculating means for calculating a motion velocity for a plurality of portions in a cross section of the object based on said echo signal; tracking means based on said velocity for tracking said plurality of portions as those positions change with the passage of time to obtain paths showing the movement over time of the positions of said portions; and means for calculating motion distances of portions on at least one beam in the cross section based on the paths obtained by said tracking means to obtain a spatial distribution of the motion distances or positions after movement. - View Dependent Claims (24, 26)
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31. An image processing apparatus for processing an ultrasound image, having an echo data and velocity data corresponding to a position of the echo data for each of a plurality of portions of an object, comprising:
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tracking means based on said change of the velocity in a time series for tracking a position of at least one specific portion of said plurality of portions as that position changes with the passage of time to obtain a path showing the movement over time of the position of said specific portion; and display means for displaying said path or the specific portion after the movement.
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Specification