Aloka Co., Ltd.

Toshiyuki Matsunaka

Masaru Murashita

Hiroyuki Kawada

A diagnostic ultrasound apparatus includes an ultrasound probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasound beams to and from an object to be observed; a frame memory for storing B-mode ultrasound image data of the object obtained from the ultrasound beams received by the ultrasound probe; a monitor for displaying at least a B-mode ultrasound image of the object formed on the basis of the B-mode ultrasound image data stored in the frame memory; a sampling line setting circuit for freely setting a desired course and range of at least one data sampling line for the B-mode image displayed on the monitor; and a read-out circuit for selectively reading out, from the ultrasound image data stored in the frame memory, ultrasound image data corresponding to the data sampling line. The ultrasound image data which has been read out by the read-out circuit is displayed on the monitor as an M-mode image. According to the diagnostic ultrasound apparatus, the data sampling line is established for any desired course and range unrelated to the forward direction of the ultrasound beams which form the B-mode image displayed on the monitor, and the ultrasound image data which corresponds to the data sampling line is selectively read out from the ultrasound image data of the B-mode image stored in the frame memory. The thus-obtained ultrasound image data of the data sampling line of the desired course, that is the M-mode image is displayed on the monitor. Therefore, observation and diagnosis of the state of motion of any specific part of the patient can be carried out freely in any direction irrespective of the forward direction of the ultrasound beams from the probe.

Diagnostic ultrasound apparatus

A diagnostic ultrasound apparatus includes a displacement image data frame memory for storing, frame by frame, two-dimensional ultrasound image data of a living body to be observed; displacement image data sampling section for sampling displacement image data which is obtained by comparing two-dimensional ultrasound image data of a newest frame with the two-dimensional ultrasound image data of any one of the previous frames stored in the displacement image data frame memory, the displacement image data representing displacement in the living body between the compared frames; displacement hysteresis image forming section for forming displacement hysteresis image data which represents changes between the thus-formed plural displacement image data by sequentially combining the plural displacement image data with the lapse of time; and a display monitor for displaying a displacement hysteresis image on the basis of thus-produced displacement hysteresis image data. When this apparatus is used for diagnosing a heart, the displacement hysteresis image shows the state of movement of the living body such as the heart muscle with the lapse of time for the time interval from peak expansion of the heart ventricle to peak contraction thereof. In this case, since the width of the displayed displacement hysteresis image shows the amount of movement (activity) of the heart muscle, there is improved accuracy in diagnosing such things as abnormal movement in the heat and the position where the abnormal movement occurs.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a body to be examined and a control section for automatically determining the optimum image conditions on the basis of the echo signals obtained by the ultrasonic transducer. The control section comprises circuits for controlling the amplification factor of the echo signals, the amplification factors of the echo signals for the respective visual field depths and the adjustment of image contrast, on the basis of the echo signals obtained by the ultrasonic transducer. These control circuits comprises a histogram forming circuit for forming histogram information on the basis of the echo signals obtained by ultrasonic transducer, which represents a histogram in which the brightness values of the image to be displayed as gradations and the number of pixels of the respective corresponding brightness values as frequencies; a compared value detecting circuit for detecting a median value or a peak value of the formed histogram on the basis of the histogram information; and an amplification factor determining circuit for comparing the compared value with a predetermined reference value and for determining the amplification factor of the echo signals or the adjustment level of the image contrast so as to eliminate the difference between the compared value and the reference value. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus can automatically determine the optimum image conditions at all times, irrespective of the thickness of the layer of fat or the state of the tissue of the body to be examined.

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Mitaka, Japan

Toshiyuki Matsunaka