Diagnostic ultrasound apparatus

• US 9,675,320 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2013
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FUJIFILM Healthcare Corp. (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Nakata, Masahiko, Kasahara, Eiji, Murashita, Masaru
• Primary Examiner(s): FERNANDEZ, KATHERINE L
• Application Number:
  US14/373,851
• Publication Number:
  US 20150032001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,568 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/02 Measuring pulse or heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0866 involving foetal diagnosis; pre-natal or peri-natal diagnosis of the baby
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0883 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/14 Echo-tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display composite display in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52074
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/469 for selection of a region of interest
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5223 for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10136 3D ultrasound image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30044 Fetus; Embryo
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30048 Heart; Cardiac
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/248 involving reference images or patches
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

In tomographic image data, a reference region-setting unit (30) sets a body reference region for the body of a fetus and sets a cardiac reference region for the heart of the fetus. A body shift analysis unit (50) analyzes the movement of the fetus'"'"' body in the tomographic image data using the body reference region and obtains body shift information. A cardiac motion analysis unit (60) analyzes the movement of the fetus'"'"' heart in the tomographic image data using the cardiac reference region and obtains cardiac motion information. Once body shift information and cardiac motion information are obtained in this manner, a pulse information-processing unit (70) obtains fetal pulse information on the basis of the cardiac motion information from which the body shift information has been subtracted. The pulse information obtained by the pulse information-processing unit (70) is displayed on the display unit (80).

Claims

1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising:

a probe that transmits and receives ultrasound to and from a diagnosis region including a fetus;

a transmitting and receiving unit that obtains a reception signal of the ultrasound from the diagnosis region by controlling the probe;

a reference region setting unit that sets, in image data related to the diagnosis region obtained based on the reception signal, a body reference region for a body of the fetus and sets a cardiac reference region for a heart of the fetus;

a shift analysis unit that analyzes a motion of the body of the fetus using the body reference region in the image data to obtain shift information of the body;

a motion analysis unit that analyzes a motion of the heart of the fetus using the cardiac reference region in the image data to obtain motion information of the heart; and

a pulse information processor that obtains pulse information of the fetus based on the motion information of the heart from which the shift information of the body is subtracted.

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

the shift analysis unit tracks the body reference region in the image data over a plurality of time phases, to form, as the shift information, a shift signal showing the motion of the body of the fetus over the plurality of time phases,

the motion analysis unit tracks the cardiac reference region in the image data over a plurality of time phases, to form, as the motion information, a motion signal showing the motion of the heart of the fetus over the plurality of time phases, and

the pulse information processor obtains the pulse information of the fetus based on a difference between the motion signal and the shift signal.

3. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the shift analysis unit calculates a movement distance from a position of the body reference region in image data of a time phase which becomes a standard to a movement position of the body reference region in each time phase to be processed, and forms the shift signal showing the movement distance of the body reference region over the plurality of time phases.

4. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the motion analysis unit calculates a movement distance from a position of the cardiac reference region in image data of a time phase which becomes a standard to a movement position of the cardiac reference region in each time phase to be processed, and forms the motion signal showing the movement distance of the cardiac reference region over the plurality of time phases.

5. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the shift analysis unit calculates a movement distance from a position of the body reference region in image data of a time phase which becomes a standard to a movement position of the body reference region in each time phase to be processed,

the motion analysis unit calculates a movement distance from a position of the cardiac reference region in the image data of the time phase which becomes the standard to a movement position of the cardiac reference region in each time phase to be processed, and

the pulse information processor calculates, for each time phase, a difference movement distance obtained by subtracting the movement distance of the body reference region from the movement distance of the cardiac reference region, and forms a pulse signal showing the difference movement distance over the plurality of time phases.

6. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the shift analysis unit tracks the body reference region in the image data over a plurality of time phases, to obtain shift information which captures a motion of the body of the fetus over the plurality of time phases,

the motion analysis unit moves the cardiac reference region in the image data over the plurality of time phases to follow the motion of the body of the fetus based on the shift information, and forms, as the motion information, a similarity signal formed by calculating for each frame in the image data a correlation between the image data in the cardiac reference region in a tomographic image of a standard frame and the image data in the cardiac reference region in a frame to be processed, and

the pulse information processor obtains the pulse information of the fetus based on the similarity signal.

7. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the shift analysis unit calculates a movement distance from a position of the body reference region in image data of a time phase which becomes a standard to a movement position of the body reference region in each time phase to be processed.

8. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the shift analysis unit calculates a movement distance from a position of the body reference region in image data of a time phase which becomes a standard to a movement position of the body reference region in each time phase to be processed, and

the motion analysis unit moves, in the image data, the cardiac reference region by the same distance as the movement distance of the body reference region for each time phase over a plurality of time phases, to move the cardiac reference region to follow the movement of the body reference region.

9. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the motion analysis unit calculates a similarity between image data in the cardiac reference region at a time phase which becomes a standard and image data in the cardiac reference region in each time phase to be processed, and forms a similarity signal showing the similarity over a plurality of time phases.

10. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the reference region setting unit sets a relatively large body reference region including a boundary between the fetus and amniotic fluid, and sets a relatively small cardiac reference region including the heart of the fetus.

11. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the reference region setting unit determines a boundary between the fetus and amniotic fluid in the image data, and sets the body reference region including the boundary.

12. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the reference region setting unit determines a cardiac portion of the fetus having a relatively high brightness in the image data by a binarization process, and sets the cardiac reference region to include the cardiac portion.