Abstract: An echo signal reflected from a microbubble contrast agent is discriminated from an echo signal generated upon reflection of a nonlinearly propagated transmission pulse from the body tissues without degradation of the axial resolution, by performing transmission/reception twice or less which would hardly decrease the imaging speed. By detecting a difference in phase of the second harmonic component based on the fundamental component included in the echo signal, an echo signal generated upon nonlinear reflection from a microbubble contrast agent is discriminated from an echo signal generated upon linear reflection of a nonlinearly propagated transmission pulse from the body tissues. The phase of the second harmonic component is detected through phase sensitive detection in which the square of the fundamental component is used as a reference wave.

Abstract: In an ultrasonic contrast imaging method in which signals specific to a contrast agent are extracted to form an image, imaging is performed with the following three well-balanced properties: frame rate, spatial resolution, and contrast-agent selectivity. A first chirp signal whose frequency increases with time and a second chirp signal obtained by inverting the first chirp signal about the time axis are used, and they are individually transmitted and received. A decoder having decode filters each adapted for a coded sequence, which is obtained when the chirp signal is decomposed into a pulse signal and a coded sequence, is provided. The decode filters are adapted for echo signals received in response to two chirp signals, respectively, and outputs of the two decode filters are input to a subtractor, whereby the difference therebetween is determined. Thus, contrast-agent selectivity is balanced with spatial resolution.

Abstract: The present invention provides an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus realizing improved visibility of a contour shape of signal components in an ultrasonic blood flow spectrum display image. The apparatus includes a gray-level correction unit for correcting intensity of an output result of a Doppler processing unit. The Doppler processing unit calculates a Doppler frequency shift in a reception signal output from a receiver and calculates blood flow velocity of a subject on the basis of the Doppler frequency shift. The gray-level correction unit has: a filtering unit for separating a signal and a noise from each other, which are included in a time-varying waveform of the blood flow velocity of the subject obtained by the Doppler processing unit on the basis of continuity on a space defined by the blood flow velocity and time; and a gray-level corrector for performing a gray level correction using, as a parameter, a boundary value between signal intensity and noise intensity obtained by the filtering unit.

Abstract: An ultrasonograph is provided which, when a difference occurs between an expected tissue displacement direction and a displacement estimation direction, minimizes errors caused by the difference to improve accuracy of an elasticity image. The ultrasonograph includes: an ultrasound probe to emit an ultrasound in a plurality of mutually crossing directions against a subject; an ultrasound transmit and receive part to control the ultrasound probe to perform a plurality of transmissions and receptions of the ultrasound in each of the plurality of directions; a displacement vector processor to calculate a displacement vector in each of the plurality of directions from a result of the plurality of transmissions and receptions; a strain processor to calculate strain information of the subject based on the displacement vectors; an image data generator to create image data based on the calculated strain information; and a display to display an image based on the image data.

Abstract: The invention provides a grease composition for a hub unit bearing employing an angular contact ball bearing, containing (a) as a thickener a mixture of diurea compounds represented by formula (I): R1—NHCONH—R2—NHCONH—R1, formula (II): R1—NHCONH—R2—NHCONH—R3, and formula (III): R3—NHCONH—R2—NHCONH—R3 wherein R1 is cyclohexyl group, R2 is a divalent aromatic hydrocarbon group having 6 to 15 carbon atoms, R3 is a straight-chain or branched alkyl group having 12 to 20 carbon atoms, and (R1/(R1+R3))×100=85 to 95 mol %; (b) a base oil; (c) a molybdenum dialkyldithiocarbamate; and (d) a calcium sulfonate. The grease composition of the invention, when used in the hub unit bearing, shows minimum leakage, excellent anti-flaking properties and satisfactory bearing lubrication life.

Abstract: An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes an ultrasound probe 1, in which a plurality of transducer elements are arrayed and which converges and radiates an ultrasound on a patient and detects a reflection wave thereof, and images a tomogram of the patient, using the reflection wave, wherein an expansion detector 22 operates a difference between a radial component of a therapeutic converging beam of a movement amount of each part, and an integral amount integrated from the radial component, and extracts a tissue expansion generated at a part of the patient from the tomogram, and wherein the movement amount is calculated by performing a pattern matching between tomograms imaged with different frames.

Abstract: Means for measuring and evaluating a dynamic property of a blood flow in a superficial blood vessel of a living body are constructed. A physical stimulus is given to the blood flow, and an ultrasonic response from the blood flow to the physical stimulus is measured and evaluated, which allows the blood property to be evaluated noninvasively and dynamically. Therefore, a medical check and a lifestyle-related diseases prevention effect are promising.

Abstract: Provided is an ultrasonic imaging device that noninvasively measures the stiffness of the cardiac muscle, which is the heart muscle, or intracardiac pressure, which is the blood pressure inside the heart. The ultrasonic imaging device includes: an ultrasonic probe (2) that transmits and receives ultrasonic waves to and from the heart, which is the target organ inside the body; a signal-processing section (15) that processes reflected echo signals received by the ultrasonic probe; a display section (14) that displays the results of signal processing as an image; and an input section (10) for setting a predetermined point on the image displayed on the display section.

Abstract: An ultrasonic imaging apparatus is provided, which is capable of discriminating a noise area where echo signals are faint. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus selects a reference frame and a comparative frame from an image made up of two or more frames, the image being obtained by processing received signals. A region of interest is set in the reference frame, and a search area wider than the region of interest is set in the comparative frame, multiple candidate regions being destination candidates of the region of interest are set within the search area, a degree of similarity of an image characteristic value between in the region of interest and in the candidate region is calculated, with respect to each of the candidate regions, so as to obtain a distribution of the degrees of similarity across the search area. With this configuration, based on the similarity distribution, it is possible to determine whether or not the region of interest corresponds to the noise area.

Abstract: In a radiation-pressure elastography technique for transmitting a ultrasound focused beam into a test object body and diagnosing the hardness thereof, it is required to consider high sensitivity and safety. In the present invention, the focused beam is transmitted to two positions as a means for displacing a tissue and exciting a shear wave. In addition, time control is performed in such a manner that a transmit beam serves as a burst-chirp signal, and ultrasound waves are transmitted and received while sweeping a transmit frequency. On this occasion, when the distance between the two focused points and the transmit frequency become integral multiple of the wavelength, two waves interfere with each other, thereby obtaining a large amplitude. Furthermore, when the transmit frequency becomes equal to a resonance frequency peculiar to the tissue, the amplitude also becomes larger. Accordingly, a small intensity of transmit waveform enhances sensitivity.

Abstract: An ultrasonograph capable of generating a transmission beam having a uniform width over a wide range in an ultrasonic wave propagation direction is provided. A weighted mean value of a plurality of transmission delay time values corresponding to focal lengths of transmission pulse waves set in the ultrasonic wave propagation direction is calculated for each element constituting a transmission aperture and used as the delay time for the element when waves are transmitted. As the weight used for obtaining the weighted mean value, a transmission effective aperture width according to each transmission focal length is selected, and a weight in the direction of the transmit aperture realizing the width is calculated and is used in a focal length direction.

Abstract: The receive sensitivity of an ultrasound array transducer structured with a diaphragm electro-acoustic transducer (101) being a basic unit is affected by change in a charge amount with elapsed time due to leakage or the like, which causes drift of the primary beam sensitivity, degradation in the acoustic SN ratio due to a rise in the acoustic noise level, and degradation in the directivity of an ultrasound beam. To addressing this problem, a charge controller (charge monitor 211) is provided to control charge in an electro-acoustic transducer (101). A charge monitoring section (102) monitors the change in the charge amount. When change in the charge amount is small, transmit sensitivity or receive sensitivity is calibrated by a controller (104) by, for example, multiplying a receive signal by a calibration coefficient corresponding to the change amount. Further, when the change in the charge amount is large, for example, charges can be re-emitted from a charge emitter (103).

Abstract: With a natural number n, an ultrasound pulse having a center frequency of nf0 is transmitted, and an echo wave produced by the reflection at an acoustic-impedance interface within the object to be examined is received. Another ultrasound pulse having a center frequency of (n+1)f0 is transmitted, and, similarly, an echo wave produced by the reflection at an acoustic-impedance interface within the object to be examined is received. The received echo signal which has a center frequency of nf0 is raised to the power of (n+1) in a self-multiplication unit. Meanwhile, The received echo signal having a center frequency of (n+1)f0 is raised to the power of n in another self-multiplication unit. Each multiplication produces a signal having a center frequency of n(n+1)f0. A signed echo signal is obtained by a phase-sensitive detection between the two obtained signals.

Abstract: Artifacts due to lateral wave that occurs in a substrate of a Capacitive Micro-machined Ultrasonic Transducer is reduced. The substrate thickness of the ultrasonic transducer is set in an optimum range to efficiently radiate the energy of lateral wave in the sensitive band 91 of the ultrasonic transducer to the outside so that the lateral wave is attenuated thereby reducing the artifacts in ultrasonic imaging.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is provided for displaying a color map on which a difference in blood flow dynamics is reflected. Setting a test subject who is administered a contrast agent is assumed as an imaging target, and a probe transmits and receives ultrasonic waves to and from the target for contrast imaging. Image data is constructed based on signals received by the probe and a time-intensity curve is generated from intensity values of the image data. According to the time-intensity curve, a value of a predetermined parameter is calculated for producing a distribution image of blood flow dynamics. The distribution image (color map) of the blood flow dynamics is produced from the parameter value. The color map is a two-dimensional or a three-dimensional image being color-coded according to the parameter value.

Abstract: An ultrasonic image capturing apparatus is disclosed for transmitting ultrasonic pulses from an ultrasonic probe in which elements are arranged two-dimensionally to a subject, receiving the ultrasonic pulses reflected by the subject, and displaying a slice image of the subject. A vector Doppler processor detects motion of the subject along the direction of an aperture of a receiving beam former, and a displacement detector detects motion of a focus region in the subject based on a result of computation of the vector Doppler processor. A scanning plate setting section determines an image capturing region by using ultrasonic waves by the displacement detector.

Abstract: In an ultrasonic imaging device having an image synthesizing unit, correlation between images to be synthesized is computed for balancing between an improvement in contrast resolution and an improvement in spatial resolution, and an amount of displacement between the images is computed. When the amount of displacement is large, the signals after envelop detection are synthesized. When the amount of displacement is small, RF signals are synthesized. Alternatively, the mixing frequency may be variable according to the amount of displacement, and the balance between an improvement in spatial resolution and that in contract resolution is achieved according to a degree of the positional displacement.

Abstract: An ultrasonic image processing method and device, and an ultrasonic image processing program which can correspond to analytical methods different depending on a region or the purpose of a diagnosis or treatment. The ultrasonic image processing method comprises an image data creation step which stores a detection result obtained by irradiating a subject with ultrasonic waves by an irradiating section and detecting an ultrasonic signal from the subject by a detecting section and creates at least two-frame image data different in detection timing on the basis of the stored detection result, a motion vector distribution image creation step which creates a motion vector distribution image on the basis of a predetermined motion vector analysis through the use of a plurality frames of the image data, and a conversion step which converts a vector distribution image to a scalar distribution image on the basis of a plurality of established regions of interest (ROI).

Abstract: This invention provides an ultrasonic imaging system that implements imaging by distinguishing sharply and definitely the echo components generated by scattering in a microbubble contrast medium, from the tissue harmonic components generated by nonlinear propagation of a transmitted pulse.

Abstract: The present invention is to provide a velocity measuring method and a velocity measuring device for carrying out the method.