The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 25, 1998
Filed:
Aug. 21, 1996
Hideki Yoshioka, Tokyo, JP;
Kazuhiro Iinuma, Tokyo, JP;
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Kawasaki, JP;
Abstract
An ultrasonic image processing for accurately detecting the annulus portion from the ultrasonic image of the long axis view of a heart. A heart wall contour is extracted from the ultrasonic image, and a center of gravity of the heart wall contour is determined. Then, for an image imaged from an apex portion side, the annulus portion is detected from points on the heart wall contour located at positions deeper than the center of gravity, whereas for an image imaged by a transesophageal echocardlography, the annulus portion is detected from points on the heart wall contour located at positions shallower than the center of gravity. An ultrasonic image can be obtained in high precision by correcting the sensitivity in a direction perpendicular to the ultrasonic beam, either by adjusting a reception gain or correcting an image intensity at specific positions within a scanning space, according to an angle formed by an ultrasonic beam vector passing through each specific position and a prescribed vector defined at each specific position.