Ultrasonic doppler diagnostic apparatus and measuring method of diagnostic parameter

• US 8,303,507 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2005
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2004
• 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: Baba, Tatsuro, Tsujino, Hiroyuki, Akaki, Kazuya
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Long V.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOR, HELENE CATHERINE
• Application Number:
  US11/219,753
• Publication Number:
  US 20060052704A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,617 Days
• Field of Search: 600/456, 600/454, 600/438
• US Class Current: 600/453
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/02 Measuring pulse or heart rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/06 Measuring blood flow measuring volume flow in general G01F, e.g. G01F1/66, G01F1/72; measuring speed of fluids in general G01P5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0883 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/13 Tomography A61B8/10, A61B8/12 take precedence; tomography for radiation diagnosis A61B6/02
• 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: A61B 8/543 involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8981 Discriminating between fixed and moving objects or between objects moving at different speeds, e.g. wall clutter filter

Abstract

A Doppler signal detecting unit 42 and spectrum calculating unit 44 measure a Doppler spectrum from a reception signal obtained by ultrasonic wave transmission/reception with respect to a diagnosis region of an object to be examined. A local maximum/minimum detecting unit 62 detects a plurality of local maximum/minimum pairs with respect to a trace waveform generated by a trace waveform generating unit 61 on the basis of the Doppler spectrum. A feature amount selecting unit 64 selects a desired waveform from a plurality of local maximum/minimum pairs in a predetermined cardiac cycle set by a cardiac cycle setting unit 63 by using heartbeat information from a living body measuring unit 9 on the basis of a preset selection criterion. A diagnostic parameter is measured on the basis of the position information or amplitude information of the selected waveform.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus comprising:

a Doppler signal detecting unit which detects a Doppler signal at a predetermined region from a reception signal obtained by performing ultrasonic wave transmission/reception with respect to an object to be examined;

a spectrum calculating unit which calculates a frequency spectrum of the Doppler signal;

a trace waveform generating unit which generates a trace waveform representing a temporal change in a predetermined spectrum component in the frequency spectrum;

a processing unit which generates data by extracting a trace waveform for each cardiac cycle from the generated trace waveform, and arraying said plurality of extracted trace waveforms along a first time axis representing a time direction associated with a heart rate and a second time axis representing a time direction within one cardiac cycle;

a statistical processing unit which generates a diagnostic waveform by performing statistical processing using the data;

a storage unit which stores a selection criterion;

a feature amount selecting unit which automatically selects a feature amount for the diagnostic waveform on the basis of the stored selection criterion;

a diagnostic parameter measuring unit which measures a diagnostic parameter on the basis of the feature amount; and

a display unit which displays a measurement result on the diagnostic parameter;

wherein the feature amount comprises an E wave and A wave of the trace waveform which are obtained in left ventricular blood inflow measurement; and

wherein the diagnostic parameter measuring unit measures at least one of an amplitude ratio E/A between E and A waves of a trace waveform of a maximum flow velocity and a lower limit period DCT of an E wave as the diagnostic parameter on the basis of the feature amount selected by the feature amount selecting unit.

2. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit performs the extraction by using at least one of an electrocardiographic waveform and phonocardiographic waveform of the object.

3. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, which further comprises a cardiac cycle setting unit which sets a cardiac cycle number, and in which

the processing unit performs the extraction by using the trace waveform containing the set cardiac cycle number.

4. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the statistical processing is one of averaging processing associated with a plurality of heartbeats, Auto-Regressive time axis model calculation processing, and Auto-Regressive and exogenous time axis model calculation processing.

5. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, which further comprises a reject processing unit which executes reject processing of excepting a trace waveform which does not meet a predetermined reference from trace waveforms in one cardiac cycle which constitute the data, and in which

the statistical processing unit executes the statistical processing by using the data for which the reject processing is executed.

6. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the display unit simultaneously displays said plurality of trace waveforms contained in the data, and

the reject processing unit performs the reject processing so as to execute the statistical processing by using a trace waveform directly or indirectly selected by an operator from the displayed trace waveforms.

7. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the reject processing unit selects a plurality of combinations of the trace waveforms contained in the data, and

the statistical processing means generates a plurality of the diagnostic waveforms by executing the statistical processing for each of the combinations.

8. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the trace waveform generating unit generates the trace waveform representing a temporal change in the predetermined spectrum component corresponding to a maximum blood flow velocity or average blood flow velocity at the predetermined region.

9. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, which further comprises a local maximum/minimum detecting unit which detects a local maximum and minimum or a local maximum with respect to the trace waveform, and in which

the feature amount selecting unit selects the feature amount on the basis of a local maximum and minimum or a local maximum of a trace waveform in a predetermined cardiac cycle of the object.

10. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 9, which further comprises a cardiac cycle setting unit which sets a cardiac cycle with respect to heartbeat information of the object, and in which

the feature amount selecting unit selects the feature amount on the basis of a local maximum and minimum or a local maximum of a trace waveform in the set predetermined cardiac cycle.

11. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the cardiac cycle setting unit sets the predetermined cardiac cycle with respect to the trace waveform on the basis of at least one of an electrocardiographic waveform and phonocardiographic waveform of the object.

12. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the display unit displays, in real time, a measurement result on the diagnostic parameter measured in a latest cardiac cycle of the trace waveform which is set by the cardiac cycle setting unit.

13. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, which further comprises a storage unit which stores the trace waveform, and in which

the feature amount selecting unit selects the feature amount in a desired cardiac cycle of the trace waveform which is temporarily stored in the storage unit.

14. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection criterion is stored as database data for each measurement target or each age group of objects.

15. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays the trace waveform and the measurement result on the diagnostic parameter in real time, and highlights a latest cardiac cycle of the trace waveform corresponding to the measurement result on the diagnostic parameter.

16. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus, comprising:

a Doppler signal detecting unit which detects a Doppler signal at a predetermined region from a reception signal obtained by performing ultrasonic wave transmission/reception with respect to an object to be examined;

a spectrum calculating unit which calculates a frequency spectrum of the Doppler signal;

a trace waveform generating unit which generates a trace waveform representing a temporal change in a predetermined spectrum component in the frequency spectrum;

a processing unit which generates data by extracting a trace waveform for each cardiac cycle from the generated trace waveform, and arraying said plurality of extracted trace waveforms along a first time axis representing a time direction associated with a heart rate and a second time axis representing a time direction within one cardiac cycle;

a statistical processing unit which generates a diagnostic waveform by performing statistical processing using the data;

a storage unit which stores a selection criterion;

a feature amount selecting unit which automatically selects a feature amount for the diagnostic waveform on the basis of the stored selection criterion;

a diagnostic parameter measuring unit which measures a diagnostic parameter on the basis of the feature amount; and

a display unit which displays a measurement result on the diagnostic parameter;

wherein the feature amount comprises at least one of S, D, and AD waves of the trace waveform which are obtained in pulmonary artery blood flow measurement.

17. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the diagnostic parameter measuring unit measures, as a diagnostic parameter, at least one of a velocity VS of an S wave in pulmonary artery blood flow measurement, a velocity VD of a D wave in pulmonary artery blood flow measurement, and a velocity VAD of an AR wave in pulmonary artery blood flow measurement on the basis of the feature amount selected by the feature amount selecting unit.

18. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus comprising:

a Doppler signal detecting unit which detects a Doppler signal at a predetermined region from a reception signal obtained by performing ultrasonic wave transmission/reception with respect to an object to be examined;

a spectrum calculating unit which calculates a frequency spectrum of the Doppler signal;

a trace waveform generating unit which generates a trace waveform representing a temporal change in a predetermined spectrum component in the frequency spectrum;

a storage unit which stores a selection criterion;

a feature amount selecting unit which automatically selects a feature amount with respect to the trace waveform in a predetermined cardiac cycle of the object on the basis of the stored selection criterion;

a diagnostic parameter measuring unit which measures a diagnostic parameter on the basis of the feature amount; and

a display unit which displays a measurement result on the diagnostic parameter;

wherein the feature amount comprises an E wave and A wave of the trace waveform which are obtained in left ventricular blood inflow measurement; and

wherein the diagnostic parameter measuring unit measures at least one of an amplitude ratio E/A between E and A waves of a trace waveform of a maximum flow velocity and a lower limit period DCT of an E wave as the diagnostic parameter on the basis of the feature amount selected by the feature amount selecting unit.

19. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the trace waveform generating unit generates the trace waveform representing a temporal change in the predetermined spectrum component corresponding to a maximum blood flow velocity or average blood flow velocity at the predetermined region.

20. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 18, which further comprises a local maximum/minimum detecting unit which detects a local maximum and minimum or a local maximum with respect to the trace waveform, and in which

the feature amount selecting unit selects the feature amount on the basis of a local maximum and minimum or a local maximum of a trace waveform in a predetermined cardiac cycle of the object.

21. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 20, which further comprises a cardiac cycle setting unit which sets a cardiac cycle with respect to heartbeat information of the object, and in which

the feature amount selecting unit selects the feature amount on the basis of a local maximum and minimum or a local maximum of a trace waveform in the set predetermined cardiac cycle.

22. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the cardiac cycle setting unit sets the predetermined cardiac cycle with respect to the trace waveform on the basis of at least one of an electrocardiographic waveform and phonocardiographic waveform of the object.

23. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the display unit displays, in real time, a measurement result on the diagnostic parameter measured in a latest cardiac cycle of the trace waveform which is set by the cardiac cycle setting unit.

24. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 18, which further comprises a storage unit which stores the trace waveform, and in which

the feature amount selecting unit selects the feature amount in a desired cardiac cycle of the trace waveform which is temporarily stored in the storage unit.

25. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the selection criterion is stored as database data for each measurement target or each age group of objects.

26. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the display unit displays the trace waveform and the measurement result on the diagnostic parameter in real time, and highlights a latest cardiac cycle of the trace waveform corresponding to the measurement result on the diagnostic parameter.

27. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus comprising:

a Doppler signal detecting unit which detects a Doppler signal at a predetermined region from a reception signal obtained by performing ultrasonic wave transmission/reception with respect to an object to be examined;

a spectrum calculating unit which calculates a frequency spectrum of the Doppler signal;

a trace waveform generating unit which generates a trace waveform representing a temporal change in a predetermined spectrum component in the frequency spectrum;

a storage unit which stores a selection criterion;

a feature amount selecting unit which automatically selects a feature amount with respect to the trace waveform in a predetermined cardiac cycle of the object on the basis of the stored selection criterion;

a diagnostic parameter measuring unit which measures a diagnostic parameter on the basis of the feature amount; and

a display unit which displays a measurement result on the diagnostic parameter;

wherein the feature amount comprises at least one of S, D, and AD waves of the trace waveform which are obtained in pulmonary artery blood flow measurement.

28. An ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic apparatus according to claim 27, wherein the diagnostic parameter measuring unit measures, as a diagnostic parameter, at least one of a velocity VS of an S wave in pulmonary artery blood flow measurement, a velocity VD of a D wave in pulmonary artery blood flow measurement, and a velocity VAD of an AR wave in pulmonary artery blood flow measurement on the basis of the feature amount selected by the feature amount selecting unit.

29. A measuring method of diagnostic parameter comprising:

detecting a Doppler signal at a predetermined region from a reception signal obtained by performing ultrasonic wave transmission/reception with respect to an object to be examined;

calculating a frequency spectrum of the Doppler signal;

generating a trace waveform representing a temporal change in a predetermined spectrum component in the frequency spectrum;

generating data by extracting a trace waveform for each cardiac cycle from the generated trace waveform, and arraying said plurality of extracted trace waveforms along a first time axis representing a time direction associated with a heart rate and a second time axis representing a time direction within one cardiac cycle;

generating a diagnostic waveform by performing statistical processing using the data;

automatically selecting a feature amount with respect to the diagnostic waveform on the basis of a stored selection criterion;

measuring a diagnostic parameter on the basis of the feature amount; and

displaying a measurement result on the diagnostic parameter;

wherein the feature amount comprises an E wave and A wave of the trace waveform which are obtained in left ventricular blood inflow measurement; and

wherein the measuring a diagnostic parameter measures at least one of an amplitude ratio E/A between E and A waves of a trace waveform of a maximum flow velocity and a lower limit period DCT of an E wave as the diagnostic parameter on the basis of the automatically selecting a feature amount.

30. A measuring method of diagnostic parameter comprising:

detecting a Doppler signal at a predetermined region from a reception signal obtained by performing ultrasonic wave transmission/reception with respect to an object to be examined;

calculating a frequency spectrum of the Doppler signal;

generating a trace waveform representing a temporal change in a predetermined spectrum component in the frequency spectrum;

automatically selecting a feature amount with respect to the trace waveform in a predetermined cardiac cycle of the object on the basis of a stored selection criterion;

measuring a diagnostic parameter on the basis of the feature amount; and

displaying a measurement result on the diagnostic parameter;

wherein the feature amount comprises an E wave and A wave of the trace waveform which are obtained in left ventricular blood inflow measurement; and

wherein the measuring a diagnostic parameter measures at least one of an amplitude ratio E/A between E and A waves of a trace waveform of a maximum flow velocity and a lower limit period DCT of an E wave as the diagnostic parameter on the basis of the automatically selecting a feature amount.