ULTRASONIC IMAGING APPARATUS AND A METHOD FOR DISPLAYING DIAGNOSTIC IMAGES

• US 20080161690A1
• Filed: 11/08/2007
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2006
• 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: SATO, Takeshi, Osumi, Ryota
• Granted Patent: US 8,708,911 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/443
• 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 8/488 involving Doppler signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52044 Scan converters

Abstract

A transmitter/receiver scans a subject body with ultrasonic waves via an ultrasonic probe and obtains first ultrasonic data composed of ultrasonic data in a first coordinate system that is along a scanning line, and a coordinate conversion part included in an image generator performs an arithmetical operation by a GPU and converts the first ultrasonic data from the first coordinate system to a second coordinate system for image display.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus, comprising:

a transmitter/receiver configured to scan a subject body with ultrasonic waves via an ultrasonic probe, and obtain first ultrasonic data composed of ultrasonic data in a first coordinate system that is along a scanning line; and

a coordinate conversion part configured to perform an arithmetical operation by a GPU, and convert the first ultrasonic data from the first coordinate system to a second coordinate system for image display.

2. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the coordinate conversion part obtains geometric conversion data that makes the first coordinate system correspond to the second coordinate system, and the GPU performs geometric conversion based on the geometric conversion data and to perform the coordinate conversion.

3. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the coordinate conversion part performs an interpolation arithmetical operation of interpolating one point in the second coordinate system by using the GPU, based on a plurality of points in the first coordinate system.

4. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

regarding the interpolation arithmetical operation, low-order interpolation is performed by hardware of the GPU or a micro cord of the GPU, and high-order interpolation is performed by a program of the GPU.

5. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 3, wherein:

regarding the interpolation arithmetical operation, upon reception of an input of a kernel size that is a size for filtering to interpolate, 2×

2 bi-linear interpolation is performed by hardware of the GPU or a micro cord of the GPU, an interpolation value is found, and an interpolation value in the inputted kernel size is found by a program of the GPU based on the interpolation value and a predetermined interpolation function.

6. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the first ultrasonic data includes a plurality of types of bloodstream information; and

the coordinate conversion part simultaneously performs a plurality of coordinate conversions of the plurality of types of bloodstream information.

7. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the coordinate conversion part finds a complex number whose elements are velocity, dispersion and power of a bloodstream included in the first ultrasonic data, calculates an interpolation value of the complex data, and thereafter, converts to the velocity, dispersion and power of the bloodstream individually based on the interpolation value to find an interpolation value of the velocity, dispersion and power of the bloodstream.

8. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 6, wherein:

the plurality of blood information includes information on velocity, dispersion and power of a bloodstream; and

the coordinate conversion part simultaneously performs coordinate conversions and interpolations of velocity, dispersion and power, by making them correspond to parallel processing circuits for processing respective colors of red, blue and green installed in the GPU.

9. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus, comprising:

a transmitter/receiver configured to scan a subject body with ultrasonic waves via an ultrasonic probe, and obtain first ultrasonic data composed of ultrasonic data in a first coordinate system that is along a scanning line; and

a coordinate conversion part configured to perform an arithmetical operation by a processor that is capable of performing parallel processing and is programmable, and convert the first ultrasonic data from the first coordinate system into a second coordinate system for image display.

10. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

the processor performs graphic drawing instead of a CPU.

11. A method for displaying diagnostic images, comprising:

scanning a subject body with ultrasonic waves via an ultrasonic probe, and obtaining first ultrasonic data composed of ultrasonic data in a first coordinate system that is along a scanning line; and

performing an arithmetical operation by a GPU, and performing coordinate conversion of the first ultrasonic data from the first coordinate system to a second coordinate system for image display.

12. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 11, wherein:

the coordinate conversion comprises obtaining geometric conversion data that makes the first coordinate system correspond to the second coordinate system, and performing geometric conversion by the GPU based on the geometric conversion data to perform the coordinate conversion.

13. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 11, wherein:

the coordinate conversion comprises performing an interpolation arithmetical operation to interpolate one point in the second coordinate system by the GPU, based on a plurality of points in the first coordinate system.

14. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 11, wherein:

the interpolation arithmetical operation comprises performing low-order interpolation by hardware of the GPU or a micro cord of the GPU, and performing high-order interpolation by a program of the GPU.

15. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 13, wherein:

the interpolation arithmetical operation comprises, upon reception of an input of a kernel size that is a size for filtering to interpolate, performing 2×

2 bi-linear interpolation by hardware of the GPU or a micro cord of the GPU, finding an interpolation value, and finding an interpolation value in the inputted kernel size by a program of the GPU based on the interpolation value and a predetermined interpolation function.

16. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 11, wherein:

the first ultrasonic data includes a plurality of types of bloodstream information, and the coordinate conversion comprises simultaneously performing a plurality of coordinate conversions of the plurality of types of bloodstream information.

17. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 11, wherein:

the coordinate conversion comprises finding a complex number whose elements are velocity, dispersion and power of a bloodstream included in the first ultrasonic data, calculating an interpolation value of the complex data, and thereafter, individually converting to the velocity, dispersion and power of the bloodstream based on the interpolation value to find an interpolation value of the velocity, dispersion and power of the bloodstream.

18. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 14, wherein:

the coordinate conversion comprises simultaneously performing coordinate conversions and interpolations of velocity, dispersion and power included in the plurality of bloodstream information, by making them correspond to parallel processing circuits for processing respective colors of red, blue and green installed in the GPU.