Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and method for acquiring ultrasound data

• US 9,316,725 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2007
• Issued: 04/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Shiki, Eiichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Rozanski, Michael
• Application Number:
  US11/857,917
• Publication Number:
  US 20080154133A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,135 Days
• Field of Search: 600/443, 600/447, 600/459
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/894 by rotation about a single axis
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8993 Three dimensional imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52034 Data rate converters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52077 with means for elimination of unwanted signals, e.g. noise or interference
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52085 Details related to the ultrasound signal acquisition, e.g. scan sequences control of medical diagnostic ultrasound devices A61B8/54
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52095 using multiline receive beamforming

Abstract

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus including an ultrasound probe configured to transmit toward and receive from a three-dimensional region of a subject, a transmitting and receiving unit configured to acquire ultrasound data by a plurality of executions of multibeam forming, comprising forming a plurality of sets of ultrasound data along a plurality of directions by a one-time transmitting and receiving operation of the ultrasound probe, a data synthesizing unit configured to synthesize a plurality of sets of data relating to the ultrasound data acquired during each of said executions, the sets being acquired along a respective plurality of different receiving directions with respect to a transmitting direction, to generate synthesized ultrasound data, and an image data generation unit configured to generate image data on the basis of the synthesized ultrasound data.

Claims

1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising:

an ultrasound probe configured to transmit toward and receive ultrasound signals from a three-dimensional region of a subject over a plurality of slices having different slice directions;

a transmitting and receiving unit having a beamformer configured to acquire ultrasound data by a plurality of executions of multibeam forming using the beamformer, the ultrasound data comprising a plurality of sets of ultrasound data along a plurality of directions by a one-time transmitting and receiving operation of the ultrasound probe for each of the plurality of slices;

processing circuitry having a data storage to store said ultrasound data, configured to;

generate a plurality of sets of synthesized ultrasound data using the ultrasound data acquired during each of said executions, each of the sets of synthesized ultrasound data being acquired along a respective plurality of different receiving directions with respect to a transmitting direction over at least two of the slices, and

generate image data on the basis of the synthesized ultrasound data;

wherein

the transmitting and receiving unit executes a plurality of scans along a scan direction which is essentially perpendicular to a direction of ultrasound transmitting, the scans being performed in different slice directions which are essentially perpendicular to the scan direction;

the processing circuitry is configured to synthesize sets of ultrasound data relating to different scans and generate the synthesized ultrasound data,

the transmitting and receiving unit scans a first slice by repeating four-beam multibeam forming having a predetermined spread along the scan direction and to scan a second slice by repeating said four-beam multibeam forming, the scan of said second slice being started from a scan position located one half of the predetermined spread from a start position of the scan of the first slice; and

the processing circuitry is configured to synthesize 2 sets of ultrasound data for the multibeam forming of the first slice and synthesize 2 sets of ultrasound data for the multibeam forming of the second slice, the 2 sets of ultrasound data corresponding to the second slice relating to directions having essentially a same scan direction component as directions relating to the 2 sets of ultrasound data corresponding to the first slice.

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

the transmitting and receiving unit performing multibeam forming in accordance with the scan direction and a slice direction which are perpendicular to a direction of ultrasound transmitting so that angular components of both the scan direction and the slice direction of neighboring two transmitting directions are different from each other.

3. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the transmitting and receiving unit repeats transmitting and receiving for multibeam forming of n beams having a predetermined spread along the scan direction with respect to n slices, the n slices being respectively scanned from a direction varied by 1/n of the predetermined spread along the scan direction; and

the processing circuitry is configured to synthesize n sets of ultrasound data of the n slices each relating to a direction having essentially same scan direction component.

4. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ultrasound probe comprises:

array transducers arrayed along the scan direction; and

a mechanical oscillator configured to oscillate the array transducers in a slice direction.

5. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the ultrasound probe is a 2-dimensional array probe which has 2-dimensionally arrayed array transducers.

6. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry further comprises:

an envelope detector and an autocorrelation calculator, configured to execute image processing which includes envelope detection and autocorrelation processing to ultrasound data outputted from the transmitting and receiving unit;

wherein

the processing circuitry is configured to synthesize ultrasound data upon which said image processing is performed.

7. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry further configured to:

execute image processing which includes envelope detection and autocorrelation processing to ultrasound data; and

synthesize ultrasound data using said ultrasound data upon which said image processing is performed.

8. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said processing circuitry is configured to synthesize the plurality of sets of data, each using ultrasound data from the respective first and second slices, said ultrasound data from said second slice shifted in the scan direction relative to the ultrasound data from the first slice.

9. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said processing circuitry is configured to synthesize the plurality of sets of data, each using ultrasound data from the respective first and second slices, the ultrasound data in the first and second slices each having first data formed at inner receiving directions adjacent to the transmitting direction and second data formed at outer receiving directions located farther away from the transmitting direction, the ultrasound data from said first slice being shifted in the scan direction with respect to the ultrasound data in said second slice such that first data in the first slice is aligned in the scan direction with second data in the second slice and second data in the first slice is aligned in the scan direction with first data in the second slice.

10. A method of acquiring ultrasound data comprising:

transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic signal using an ultrasound probe having array transducers toward and from a three-dimensional region of a subject;

acquiring ultrasound data by a plurality of executions of multibeam forming, the ultrasound data comprising a plurality of sets of ultrasound data along a plurality of directions by a one-time transmitting and receiving operation for each of a plurality of slices having different slice directions;

synthesizing a plurality of sets of synthesized data using the ultrasound data acquired during said executions, each of the sets of synthesized data being acquired along a respective plurality of different receiving directions with respect to a transmitting direction over at least two of the slices; and

generating image data on the basis of the synthesized ultrasound data, wherein

the transmitting and receiving comprises executing a plurality of scans along a scan direction which is essentially perpendicular to a direction of ultrasound transmitting, the scans being performed in different slice directions which are essentially perpendicular to the scan direction,

the data synthesizing includes synthesizing sets of synthesized ultrasound data relating to different scans,

the transmitting and receiving comprises scanning a first slice by repeating four-beam multibeam forming having a predetermined spread along the scan direction and scanning a second slice by repeating said four-beam multibeam forming, wherein scanning the second slice starts at a position located a half of the predetermined spread from a start position of the first slice, and

synthesizing ultrasound data comprises synthesizing 2 sets of ultrasound data for one multibeam forming of the first slice and synthesizing 2 sets of ultrasound data for one multibeam forming of the second slice, the 2 sets of the ultrasound data corresponding to the second slice relating to directions having essentially same scan direction component as directions relating to the 2 sets of the ultrasound data corresponding to the first slice.

11. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, further comprising:

controlling directions for the multibeam forming in accordance with the scan direction and a slice direction which are perpendicular to a direction of ultrasound transmitting so that angular components of both the scan direction and the slice direction of two neighboring transmitting directions are different from each other.

12. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, wherein:

transmitting and receiving comprises transmitting and receiving n beams having a predetermined spread along the scan direction toward and from n slices, the n slices being scanned from a direction varied by 1/n of the predetermined spread along the scan direction; and

the synthesizing ultrasound data comprises synthesizing n sets of ultrasound data of the n slices each relating to a direction having essentially a same scan direction component.

13. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, wherein:

transmitting and receiving comprises using array transducers arrayed along the scan direction and oscillating the array transducers in a slice direction.

14. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, wherein:

transmitting and receiving using a 2-dimensional array probe that has 2-dimensional arrayed array transducers.

15. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, further comprising;

executing image processing comprising envelope detection and autocorrelation processing to ultrasound data outputted by the transmitting and receiving step;

wherein

synthesizing ultrasound data comprises synthesizing ultrasound data outputted by the image processing.

16. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, further comprising:

executing image processing comprising envelope detection and autocorrelation processing to ultrasound data outputted by the synthesizing ultrasound data step;

wherein

the step of synthesizing ultrasound data comprises synthesizing ultrasound data outputted by the transmitting and receiving step.

17. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, wherein:

synthesizing said plurality of sets of data comprises each using ultrasound data from the respective first and second slices, said ultrasound data from said second slice shifted in the scan direction relative to the ultrasound data from the first slice.

18. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 10, comprising synthesizing the plurality of sets of data, each using ultrasound data from the respective first and second slices, the ultrasound data in the first and second slices each having first data formed at inner receiving directions adjacent to the transmitting direction and second data formed at outer receiving directions located farther away from the transmitting direction, the ultrasound data from said first slice being shifted in the scan direction with respect to the ultrasound data in said second slice such that first data in the first slice is aligned in the scan direction with second data in the second slice and second data in the first slice is aligned in the scan direction with first data in the second slice.

19. A method of acquiring ultrasound data comprising:

transmitting a first and a second plurality of ultrasonic signals toward a subject along a scanning direction over respective first and second slices having different slice directions using an ultrasound probe having array transducers;

acquiring ultrasonic data from each of a second plurality of different directions along said scanning direction for each of said first and second plurality of ultrasonic signals, to form a first and a second plurality of sets of data;

synthesizing the ultrasonic data to produce synthesized ultrasound data using ultrasonic data from both of said first and second plurality of sets of data; and

generating image data on the basis of the synthesized ultrasound data, wherein

transmitting comprises scanning a first slice by repeating four-beam multibeam forming having a predetermined spread along the scanning direction and scanning a second slice by repeating said four-beam multibeam forming, wherein scanning the second slice starts at a position located a half of the predetermined spread from a start position of the first slice; and

synthesizing ultrasound data comprises synthesizing 2 sets of ultrasound data for one multibeam forming of the first slice and synthesizing 2 sets of ultrasound data for one multibeam forming of the second slice, the 2 sets of the ultrasound data corresponding to the second slice relating to directions having essentially same scanning direction component as directions relating to the 2 sets of the ultrasound data corresponding to the first slice.

20. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 19, comprising:

controlling directions of said plurality of ultrasonic signals in accordance with said scanning direction and a slice direction such that angular components of both the scanning direction and the slice direction of two neighboring transmitting directions are different from each other.

21. The method of acquiring ultrasound data according to claim 20, wherein:

controlling directions comprises controlling n ultrasonic signals having a predetermined spread along the scanning direction toward and from n slices, the n slices being scanned from a direction varied by 1/n of the predetermined spread along the scanning direction; and

synthesizing the ultrasound data comprises synthesizing n sets of ultrasound data of the n slices each relating to a direction having essentially a same scanning direction component.