Hitachi Medical Corporation

Other

Hitachi, Ltd.

Mitsuhiro Oshiki

Ryuichi Shinomura

Takeshi Matsumura

Satoshi Tamano

Tsuyoshi Mitake

Tsuyoshi Shiina

Takashi Osaka

Tetsuya Hayashi

Naoyuki Murayama

Okinori Yuasa

Atsushi Suzuki

Hiroshi Kanda

Kenji Maio

Kanako Hatayama

Masato Nakamura

Takashi Kuroki

Mikio Izumi

Shosaku Ishihara

Shuzou Sano

Takaya Osawa

An ultrasonic transmitting/receiving circuit equipped with: a semiconductor circuit element which comprises at least three terminals including a first terminal connected to a plurality of transducer elements that constitute an ultrasonic probe, a second terminal connected to a transmission signal generating circuit, and a third terminal serving as an output terminal of an amplifier of a reception signal from the transducer element, and which has a function of amplifying a signal inputted from one terminal by the other terminal and outputting the amplified signal between at least two terminals among the above-said three terminals; and a control unit which performs control so as to cause the semiconductor circuit element to perform a first function of functioning as a switch for inputting a transmission signal to the transducer element and a second function of amplifying the reception signal received from the transducer element.

Ultrasonic transmitting/receiving circuit and ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus characterized by comprising, a probe which has a transducer and which transmits and receives ultrasonic waves, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus main body; and a cable through which signals are transmitted and received between the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus main body and the probe, wherein the probe includes a transmission signal generator that generates an ultrasonic transmission signal, a transmission circuit that amplifies the generated transmission signal, and a transmission phasing circuit that adjusts the timing of the transmission signal.

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and method thereof

An ultrasound elasticity imaging apparatus includes an elastic data processing section which processes a received signal detected by an ultrasound probe and generates elastic frame data, a display evaluation section which evaluates a display value of the elastic frame data based on various data in the generation of the elastic frame data, a display processing section which performs image processing of the elastic frame data according to the evaluation result by the display evaluation section, and a display section which displays an elastic image based on the elastic frame data processed by the image processing section.

Ultrasound probe and ultrasound elasticity imaging apparatus

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having an ultrasonic probe configured to transmit and receive an ultrasonic wave, a transmitter for configured to supply a signal to the ultrasonic probe and forming an ultrasonic beam, a receiver configured to receive a reception signal obtained by transmitting the ultrasonic beam to an object, a signal processor configured to form an ultrasonic image on the basis of the reception signal, a display unit configured to display the ultrasonic image, and a control unit configured to control the transmitter, the receiver, the signal processor and the display unit, comprising a setting unit configured to set an operation mode of the transmitter to a low power consumption operation mode or a high spatial resolution operation mode.

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is disclosed for improving the signal to noise ratio of a receiving system, and allowing demodulation processing of ultrasonic reflection signals at the transducer during the receive process. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe which transmits and receives ultrasound to and from a subject, a transmitting unit which supplies driving signals to the ultrasonic probe, and a receiving unit which processes signals to be output from the ultrasonic probe and calculates diagnostic information regarding the subject. The ultrasonic probe is equipped with a receiving transducer having sensitivity which changes according to the level of bias voltage to be applied. The receiving unit is equipped with a modulated bias amplification unit which applies signals of bias voltage with modulated amplitude to the receiving transducer.

For realization of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus capable of satisfactorily narrowing a beam width while suppressing an increase in the number of focus data, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is designed to include an ultrasonic probethat transmits or receives ultrasonic waves to or from a subject, a transmission unitthat supplies a driving signal to the ultrasonic probe, a reception unitthat handles a received signal sent from the ultrasonic probe, a unitthat reconstructs an ultrasonic image on the basis of a signal sent from the reception unit, and a unitthat displays the ultrasonic image. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus further includes an element selection unitthat selects a plurality of driving oscillatory elements, which constitutes an aperture through which ultrasonic waves are transmitted or received, from among a plurality of oscillatory elements that constitutes the ultrasonic probeand transforms ultrasonic waves into electric signals or vice versa. The element selection unitgroups the plurality of driving oscillatory elements into a plurality of sets, each of which includes one driving oscillatory element or a plurality of adjoining driving oscillatory elements, according to the depth of a focal point.

This is an image diagnosing support method comprising: an acquisition step of acquiring a plurality of images obtained by imaging the same region of the same object with one or more medical imaging apparatuses and having positional information at the time each of the images was picked up; a selecting step of selecting a first image and a second image out of the plurality of images; a displaying step of displaying the first image and the second image; a step of designating one or more of first reference points on the first image; a step of figuring out second reference points, on the second image, each matching one or another of the first reference points; a first step of extracting for each of the first reference points a first region containing that point within it; and a second step of extracting for each of the second reference points a second region containing that point within it, characterized in that either one of the first step and the second step is performed earlier or both are at the same time.

Image diagnosing support method and image diagnosing support apparatus

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is disclosed for transmitting ultrasonic waves and receiving echo signals. The apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe having transducers whose sensitivity can be controlled in accordance with bias voltage. Echo signals output from the ultrasonic probe are amplified so that an image can be constructed according to the amplified echo signals and displayed. A probe gain control device is used for controlling the bias voltage in accordance with the elapsed time from receiving the echo and matching the intensity of the echo signal output from the ultrasonic probe with the input range of a preamplifier. During a reception period while a strong echo signal is received from a superficial portion of body surface of an examinee, the reception sensitivity of the ultrasonic probe is controlled so that the echo signal level input to the preamplifier will not exceed the input range of the preamplifier.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for recognition helpful to diagnosis by giving and displaying a score serving as an index of diagnosis. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises a displacement measuring section () for measuring the displacement of an organism tissue of a subject () according to a reflection echo signal received correspondingly when an ultrasonic wave is transmitted from a probe () to the subject (), an elastic image creating section for creating an elastic image after determining the distortion amount or the elastic modulus from the displacement, and an image display () for displaying the elastic image. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus further comprises scoring means for specifying the distorted state or elastic state according to the information on the elastic image outputted from the elastic image creating section.

A medical imaging diagnosis apparatus for measuring the composite thickness of the tunica intima and the tunica media of a blood vessel of a subject by acquiring image data on the blood vessel. In order to improve the accuracy of the IMT measurement of the composite thickness, the medical imaging diagnosis apparatus has extracting means for extracting the tunica intima and the tunica externa of the blood vessel on the basis of the brightness information of the image data to measure the composite thickness of the tunica intima and the tunica externa of the vessel in reference to the two extracted regions.

Medical imaging diagnosis apparatus and medical imaging diagnosis method

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasound probe which transmits/receives an ultrasound wave with respect to a subject to be diagnosed, an ultrasound wave transmit section which transmits an ultrasound wave for driving the ultrasound probe, a pressing section which applies an external pressure to the subject, a displacement measuring section which obtains two tomographic image data different in time series from a reflected echo signal received from the ultrasound probe and measures a displacement of each part in the subject based on the two tomographic image data, an image generating section which generates an elastic image from elasticity information based on the displacement of each part measured by the displacement measuring section, and a display section which displays the generated elastic image. Further, a pressing decision section decides whether or not the pressing operation by the pressing section is proper.

An ultrasound probe includes an ultrasound wave transmit/receive surface coming into contact with a contact surface of a subject, an ultrasound wave transmit/receive section which transmits an ultrasound wave to the subject via the ultrasound wave transmit/receive surface and the contact surface and receives an ultrasound wave reflected in the subject, and a pressing mechanism for performing a pressing operation for applying a pressure to the contact surface perpendicularly to the ultrasound wave transmit/receive surface via the ultrasound wave transmit/receive surface.

Ultrasonic probe and ultrasonic elasticity imaging device

An ultrasonographic apparatus includes: an ultrasonic probefor transmitting/receiving an ultrasonic wave to/from a patient, meansfor generating an ultrasonic transmission signal and transmitting it to the ultrasonic probe, meansfor receiving a reflection echo signal received by the ultrasonic probe; meansfor re-constructing a form image according to the reception signal processed by the reception processing means; meansfor re-constructing an elasticity image according to the reception signal processed by the reception processing means; meansfor displaying the form image and the elasticity image; meansfor switching between the form image mode and elasticity image mode; and meansfor performing control so as to selectively acquire the form image and the elasticity image in the measurement period of the elasticity image mode switched by the mode switching means. Thus, it is possible to perform measurement associated with acquisition of both the form image and the elasticity image of the biological tissue and improve the image quality of the form image such as a B mode image and the image quality of the elasticity image such as elasticity ratio and elasticity distortion.

Biological tissue elasticity measurement method and ultrasonographic device

In order to provide a two-dimensionally arrayed probe (element packaging structure) in which a multilayer element can be used as a piezoelectric ceramic transducer element, each defective element can be replaced and the ill connection of each element can be repaired, and in order to provide a multilayer electric part suitable for realizing such an element packaging structure, the multilayer electronic part is configured with a multilayer chip-like element having a surface electrode, an internal electrode and a back electrode on the one hand and a flexible board attached to one side surface of the chip-like element on the other hand, alternate ones of the electrodes along the multilayer of the chip-like element are connected electrically to each other by the electrode pattern of the flexible board thereby to form two electrode groups, and the end portions of the electrode pattern of the flexible board are used as the two electrode portions for external connection which are electrically connected to the two electrode groups.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Mitsuhiro Oshiki