Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Nobuo Yamazaki

Takeshi Sato

Hiroyuki Shikata

Fumiyasu Sakaguchi

Akihiro Sano

Hiromi Maekawa

Terufumi Akama

Schuichi Kawasaki

Masayoshi Tsuchiko

Naoto Wakabayashi

Tomio Kawaguchi

An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus which includes a plurality of ultrasonic transducers arranged two-dimensionally. In the ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus, the ultrasonic beams are transmitted by the ultrasonic transducers for three-dimensionally scanning a target of the object, and then, ultrasonic echo signals are obtained from the ultrasonic transducers. On the basis of the ultrasonic echo signals, three-dimensional data with respect to at least one of structure information and blood flow information in the object are generated in real time. Then, on the basis of the three-dimensional data, image information including at least one of a two-dimensional tomographic image and a three-dimensional projection image of an arbitrary cross section within the object is generated in real time. On the basis of the image information, navigation information for navigating a puncture needle toward the target of the object is displayed.

Ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus

There is provided an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus in which a region containing an organ of an object being examined is diagnosed by means of ultrasonic beams, the organ being in motion, the apparatus comprising: an element for scanning the region by the ultrasonic beams to obtain ultrasonic echo signals having Doppler shift; an element for calculating movement velocities every sampling volume on the basis of the ultrasonic echo signals; and an element for displaying by color the movement velocities.

Ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus and image displaying system

An ultrasonic wave transmitting/receiving portion transmits ultrasonic waves to a subject via an ultrasonic probe, then receives the ultrasonic waves reflected from the subject via the ultrasonic probe, and then converts the received ultrasonic waves into electric signals. A B-mode DSC portion converts the electric signals received by the ultrasonic wave transmitting/receiving portion into displaying signals. A Doppler signal processing portion detects Doppler signals from the electric signals supplied from the ultrasonic wave transmitting/receiving portion in terms of phase detection and analyzes both blood flow velocity and tissue motion velocity based on the Doppler signals within a processing time assigned to one scanning line. A displaying portion displays concurrently B-mode ultrasonic images supplied from the B-mode DSC portion and information as for blood flow velocity and tissue motion velocity supplied from the Doppler signal processing portion apparently.

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

There is provided an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus in which a region containing an organ of an object being examined is diagnosed by means of ultrasonic beams, the organ being in motion, the apparatus comprising: an element for scanning the region by the ultrasonic beams to obtain ultrasonic echo signals having Doppler shift; an element for calculating movement velocities every sampling volume on the basis of the ultrasonic echo signals; and an element for displaying in color the movement velocities.

A diagnostic ultrasound system is provided for displaying a color image of a motion of a tissue scans an ultrasonic pulse signal along a tomographic plane to acquire an electrical echo signal, extracts a Doppler signal from the echo signal, calculates velocity data concerning the motion of the tissue for respective sample points on the tomographic plane on the basis of the Doppler signal, and forms data of a B-mode tomographic image on the basis of the echo signal. The system comprises an element for setting a scale along which each of the velocity data over a measurable band of frequencies of the Doppler signal is assigned to each gradation data for color display, the measurable band of frequencies being limited by a pulse repetition frequency of the ultrasonic pulse signal and a given low-velocity band of the measurable frequency band being enhanced in the gradation data than a remaining velocity band of the measurable band, an element for converting the velocity data into the gradation data according to the scale, an element for blanking either one of the converted gradation data and the calculated velocity data at every sample point when each of them exceeds a specified threshold, and an element for displaying the velocity color image subjected to blanking and superimposed on the B-mode tomographic image.

Diagnostic ultrasound system

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus transmits an ultrasonic wave to an object to be examined and forms an image of tomographic information in the object obtained through an ultrasonic probe. The apparatus measures a comulative operation time of the ultrasonic probe and output the cumulative operation time.

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus for radiating ultrasonic waves in a cross section of a subject by color Doppler scan, detecting the intensity of reflected echo, and brightness-modulating the intensity of the reflected echo, thereby obtaining a tomogram of the subject, and also for detecting a frequency-deviation (Doppler shift) of the reflected echo and detecting the direction and flow velocity of a blood flow in the subject, thereby displaying the blood flow two-dimensionally by coloring the blood flow portion in the tomogram in accordance with the detected flow velocity and direction. The apparatus of the present invention has a control means for controlling the scan-timings for B-mode scanning and CFM scanning independently, and thus, the frame rate for B-mode scanning and that for CFM scanning are controlled independently. The B-mode scanning frame rate can be controlled to be higher than CFM scanning frame rate. Therefore, the realtime following ability for displaying B-mode image is improved compared to the conventional color Doppler scan.

An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprises an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting ultrasonic beams to a subject and converting echoes from the subject to echo signals, a scan controller for selectively switching a scanning mode between a first scanning mode in which a predetermined number of rasters in each of a plurality of scanning blocks each having the predetermined number of rasters are scanned repeatedly and echo signals at a predetermined number of sample points in each of the rasters are extracted block by block and a second scanning mode in which a plurality of rasters are repeatedly scanned a predetermined number of times while at least one raster is shifted sequentially and data are output at constant intervals, a transmitter/receiver circuit for driving the ultrasonic transducer in accordance with a scanning mode selected by the scan controller, processes the echo signals output from the ultrasonic transducer to output an image signal and a television monitor for visually displaying the image signal.

Ultrasonic imaging apparatus

The present invention relates to a technique for setting a sample point in a pulse Doppler scan in a linear scan type ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. A transmitting/receiving system for transmitting/receiving a linear scan of ultrasonic beams to/from a subject includes a linear scan probe, a pulser, a preamplifier, a receiving delay line and a summing circuit, as well as a sample point setter and a deflection angle setting circuit. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a control system for fixing the initially set position of the sample point in the subject, when the deflection angle is reset by the deflection angle setting circuit, and for changing a set value of the sample point setting circuit so that the fixed position of the sample point coincides with a sample point of an ultrasonic beam to be propagated based on the reset deflection angle, and an image system having at least a D-mode processor for frequency-analyzing a received signal corresponding to the sample point to find a Doppler deviation frequency fd, and calculating bloodstream velocity data of the subject from the found doppler deviation frequency fd.

An ultrasonic blood stream observing apparatus based on a pulse Doppler method utilizing as a transmission, a high frequency pulse signal. The frequency f.sub.PRF of a transmission pulse repetition signal and the frequency f.sub.R of a reference signal used for demodulating a Doppler component of an observed signal, are synchronized to each other. The frequency f.sub.PRF is a harmonic frequency. The output of an oscillator is frequency-divided to produce the transmission pulse repetition signal. A frequency multiplier generates an output signal used as the reference signal, synchronized to the transmission pulse repetition signal. The frequency multiplier frequency multiplies by n its input signal obtained directly or indirectly from the oscillator.

Growing community of inventors

Otawara, Japan

Nobuo Yamazaki