Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Medical Corporation

Fujifilm Healthcare Corporation

Yushi Tsubota

Shinichi Kojima

Kenichi Kawabata

Takahide Terada

Kazuhiro Yamanaka

Yasutaka Konno

Fumito Watanabe

Wenjing Wu

Hironori Ueki

Keisuke Yamakawa

Atsurou Suzuki

Shinji Kurokawa

Atsuro Suzuki

Ai Masuda

Takashi Yamamoto

Hideo Kashima

Akira Kojima

Masakazu Sugaya

Hideki Yoshikawa

Rei Asami

Jiwon Hong

An object of the invention is to provide an ultrasonic CT device in which a reflected signal or the like from an object disposed close to transducers is received, and a reception signal thereof can be received by a receiver while transceivers whose number is smaller than the number of the transducers are used. The ultrasonic CT device includes: a transducer array in which a plurality of transducers are arranged; transceivers whose number is smaller than the number of the transducers; and a transmission transducer selector and a reception transducer selector disposed for each of the transceivers. While a transmitter included in the transceiver is selectively connected to any of the transducers in the transducer array by the transmission transducer selector, a receiver included in the transceiver is selectively connected to any of the transducers in the transducer array by the reception transducer selector.

Ultrasonic CT device, control method of ultrasonic CT device, and ultrasonic transmission and reception device

Information relevant to a state of a tissue in a subject (state information) is provided with technology reducing the amount of memory and computation necessary at the time of extracting the information. An ultrasonic wave is transmitted towards a subject, a transmission wave transmitted through the subject or a reflection wave reflected on the subject is received. A reception signal is generated on the basis of the transmission wave or the reflection wave. A tissue region candidate, of a region indicating a tissue of the subject, is set on the basis of the reception signal. State information, which is information relevant to a state of the tissue in the tissue region candidate, is calculated on the basis of the reception signal and the tissue region candidate. An ultrasonic image reflecting the state information is generated on the basis of the state information and displayed.

Ultrasonic CT apparatus and ultrasonic imaging method

In an ultrasonic CT device for breast examination, unevenness of an ultrasonic image due to a distribution of inclination angles of a breast is reduced. The distribution of the inclination angles of a surface of a subject in a contour of the subject is obtained from a tomographic image, and a signal level of a reception signal or a pixel value of the tomographic image is corrected using the distribution of the inclination angles.

Ultrasonic CT device, image processing device, and image processing program that corrects a signal or pixel

Provided is a device that transmits and receives an ultrasonic wave to and from an entire periphery of a specimen while preventing a movement of the specimen. An ultrasonic wave transmission and reception device includes: an oscillator array that is arrayed with an oscillator, the oscillator transmitting and receiving an ultrasonic wave; a fixing tool that is disposed between the oscillator array and the specimen and retains the specimen; and a drive mechanism that presses at least a part of the fixing tool against the specimen as to retain the specimen. An ultrasonic wave transmitted by the oscillator array passes through the fixing tool and irradiates on the specimen, and as for the oscillator array, the oscillator array and the fixing tool are disposed in a positional relationship such that the ultrasonic wave reflected by and/or passing through by the specimen and passing through the fixing tool is received.

Ultrasonic wave transmission and reception device

According to the present invention, a clear transmitted wave image of a boundary of tissues is generated in a short time. An ultrasonic imaging device of the present invention includes a transducer array in which a plurality of transducers transmitting and receiving an ultrasound wave are arrayed; a transmission unit which delivers an electric signal to at least one of the plurality of transducers, such that the delivered electric signal is converted into an ultrasound wave, and transmits the ultrasound wave to a target; a reception unit which receives a received signal that is an electric signal output by each of the plurality of transducers having received a reflected wave and a transmitted wave of the ultrasound wave of the target; and an image generation unit which individually generates a reflected wave image of a cross section of the target using a received signal of the reflected wave and a transmitted wave image of the cross section of the target using a received signal of the transmitted wave. The image generation unit includes a reflected wave image boundary detection unit detecting a boundary of the target in the reflected wave image and generating the transmitted wave image such that a boundary in the transmitted wave image corresponding to the boundary detected by the reflected wave image boundary detection unit is emphasized.

Ultrasonic imaging device and ultrasonic imaging method using ultrasonic imaging device

An ultrasonic imaging device according to the present invention includes: a container provided with an opening for inserting a target region of a subject; and a transmission/reception unit that transmits ultrasound to the target region inserted into the container filled with a liquid and receives the ultrasound that penetrates the target region or is reflected from the target region. The container has a pressure reducing unit that holds the target region in the container by reducing a pressure in the container of which the opening is covered with the target region. According to the present invention, since it is possible to maintain a shape close to a predetermined shape when the target region of a breast or the like is inserted into a container filled with the liquid, it is possible to measure the target region with high accuracy by transmitting and receiving ultrasound.

Ultrasonic imaging device, and ultrasonic transmission/reception method

Provided herein is a phantom capable of mimicking both a dense breast and a fatty breast. A phantom for ultrasound measurement includes: a first member that mimics an object of interest for measurement; and a second member having provided therein the first member. The second member has the property to decrease its sound speed with a temperature increase brought by external temperature control. The sound speed of the second member at a predetermined temperature is equal to the sound speed of a third member surrounding the second member. The first member and the second member are immiscible with each other.

Phantom for ultrasound measurement, and ultrasound CT device

The ultrasonic CT device includes: a first water tank configured such that an object is inserted therein, the first water tank being filled with a medium through which an ultrasonic wave passes; a ring array that irradiates an ultrasonic wave to the object and detects an ultrasonic wave reflected by the object while moving on an outer surface of the first water tank; and a signal processing unit that generates a tomographic image of the object based on a signal obtained by the ring array. The ultrasonic CT device further includes: a second water tank that houses the first water tank and the ring array; and a lid having a hole or a notch which is provided on a side of the object in the second water tank and which drains the medium.

Ultrasonic CT device

A sinogram is corrected in a form that can use a straight-ray type reconstruction method while considering trajectory of refracted waves. Specifically, based on the sequentially estimated path information of the virtual waves, an arrival time difference sinogram is corrected by a difference or a ratio between 'shortest arrival time of wave' and 'arrival time of the wave through the shortest path' to each detection element.

Ultrasound imaging device and ultrasound image generation program

Medical breast examination device

An X-ray CT device which improves resolution in a peripheral region distant from a rotation center. According to an FFS method of moving an X-ray focal point, a gap width of projection positions on an X-ray detector of a first X-ray trajectory from the X-ray focal point of a first view and a second X-ray trajectory from the X-ray focal point of a second view is obtained. A position of the X-ray focal point of the first and second views is set so that a gap widthof the projection positions on the X-ray detector of the first X-ray trajectory and the second X-ray trajectory which pass through a point within a predetermined first region close to the X-ray focal point from the rotation center is closer to (N&#x2212;&#xbd;) times (N=any one of 1, 2, 3, . . . ) of a width of a channel of the X-ray detector.

X-ray CT device and imaging method for X-ray CT images

A change of X-ray radiation quality due to a material existing between an X-ray source and a detection element is estimated and corrected. Accordingly, deterioration of material discrimination ability in a dual energy imaging method can be prevented. An X-ray imaging apparatus is provided with an inherent filtration calculator configured to use measured data obtained by imaging air at two or more types of different tube voltages to calculate a deviation from a reference radiation quality, as a transmission length (inherent filtration) of a predetermined reference material. A reference-material transmission-length conversion is applied to the measured data according to the dual energy imaging method, thereby calculating the reference material transmission length (inherent filtration). When a subject is imaged, the dual energy imaging is performed by adding the inherent filtration calculated as to each detection element, and this produces an image with the change of radiation quality having been corrected.

X-ray image pickup apparatus, X-ray image pickup method, and X-ray image pickup apparatus monitoring method

Provided is a technique in an X-ray imaging apparatus for implementing data interpolation approximating an ideal point response trajectory interpolation, along with reducing calculation load. A method is provided to perform interpolation at high speed, in a direction along the point response trajectory. Sinograms are interpolated in advance from measured data, as to representative angles (e.g., 0&#xb0;, &#xb1;30&#xb0;, &#xb1;60&#xb0;, and 90&#xb0;) only. When a pixel targeted for back projection is determined at the time of reconstruction, a slope of the point response trajectory is determined as to each view. According to the slope of the trajectory, each representative sinogram is added with weight, whereby interpolation data in association with any angle can be obtained.

X-ray image pickup device and image reconstruction method

Noise of a CT image is reduced with good accuracy by using noise information obtained from the CT image. An X-ray CT apparatus comprises a successive approximate reconstruction part that reconstructs a CT image for a reconstruction area of an imaging object from measured projection data obtained by an X-ray detection part of the X-ray CT apparatus, and successively corrects the CT image so that calculated projection data obtained by forward projection of the CT image performed by calculation and the measured projection data detected by the X-ray detection part become equal to each other. The successive approximate reconstruction part comprises a noise measurement part that calculates noise intensity in the CT image at least for a predetermined region of interest, and successively corrects the CT image of the region of interest by using the calculated noise intensity.

X-ray CT apparatus

The present invention is capable of distinguishing four types or more of substances such as air, water (soft tissues), contrast medium, and bones (calcification) to diagnose progress of atherosclerotic sites using dual energy imaging. A subject is imaged with two types of different tube voltages and an image obtained by image reconstruction is binarized to carry out a reprojection process; thereby, the distance of penetration of air is estimated, the contribution of air in measurement projection data is determined, and the amount of reduction by the air is deducted from the projection data so as to enable distinction between four or more substances such as air, water (soft tissues), contrast medium, and bones (calcification).

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yushi Tsubota