Abstract: In a medical ultrasound diagnosis apparatus, a reference image and a guidance display are provided as probe operation support information. The reference image contains a recorded probe mark generated based on coordinate data recorded during a past diagnosis and a current probe mark generated based on current coordinate data. A user adjusts a position and an orientation of a probe so that these marks match. The guidance display has a plurality of indicators provided corresponding to a plurality of coordinate components. Each indicator displays proximity and match for each coordinate component. With the probe operation support information, it is possible to quickly and easily match a current diagnosis part to a past diagnosis part.

Abstract: A liquid medicine dispensing device includes a rotary unit 12 which rotates while holding a plurality of original drug vials 100, and a conveyance mechanism that conveys a prescription bottle 110 in the horizontal direction on the underside of the rotary unit 12. Each of the original drug vials 100 is connected with a discharge nozzle 17 to which a discharge valve 26 is attached, and an air nozzle 29 connected with a pump and an atmospheric relief valve. When discharging liquid medicine, the prescription bottle 110 is conveyed in advance to a position that is directly below an original drug vial 100 required for dispensing. In that state, the original drug vial 100 is inverted by rotating the rotary unit 12 by 180 degrees, and the discharge valve 26 is opened.

Abstract: An ultrasound system includes an ultrasound transducer having an array of elements and a beam origin located between two adjacent elements, each of the elements for converting received energy into an echo signal; and a beamformer that includes an initialization controller having initialization controller circuitry for calculating initialization parameters according to a process for calculating initialization parameters from a reduced table; at least one channel having a delay circuit and a delay controller; and a summer for summing phase-aligned signals to form a beamformed signal.

Abstract: In an ultrasound diagnosis apparatus, a plurality of sub arrays are defined on a 2D array transducer. A plurality of groups are defined for each sub array. Each group is basically composed of a plurality of transducer elements which are connected in parallel with each other. A sub array shape is variably defined for a plurality of sub arrays in accordance with the beam direction and the depth of a focal point. Further, a grouping pattern is variably defined for each sub array. The acoustic distances between the respective transducer elements and the focal point is made as equal as possible for a plurality of transducer elements forming each group, whereby a preferable beam profile can be obtained.

Abstract: In FIG. 2 (A), a reception beam (102) is formed using a weighting function (112). A position of a peak of the weighting function (112) is set at the position of the reception beam (102). A reception beam (104) is formed using a weighting function (114), and a position of a peak of the weighting function (114) is set at the position of the reception beam (104). A reception beam (106) is formed using a weighting function (116) and a position of a peak of the weighting function (116) is set at a position of the reception beam (106). In this manner, the positions of the peaks of the weighting functions (112, 114, 116) are shifted in the receive aperture, to follow movements of the reception beams (102, 104, 106) caused by electrical scanning.

Abstract: A radiation measuring device capable of identifying the incident direction of a radiation ray and energy (segmentation). The directivity characteristics of a plurality of detectors are different from each other. A plurality of energy segmentations are set respectively for a plurality of spectra corresponding to a plurality of detectors, and actual measurement ratio information (a plurality of actual measurement counting ratios) expressing the mutual ratio between integrated counting values for each energy segmentation is computed. The actual measurement ratio information is checked against a plurality of response functions, and, when the compatibility relation between specific actual measurement ratio information and specific theoretical ratio information is found, the incident direction of a radiation ray and an energy segmentation are identified based on that relation.

Abstract: An adapter for use in puncture (a puncture adapter) for performing puncture while an ultrasonic image is being observed. The puncture adapter is composed of a holder for holding a probe which transmits and receives an ultrasonic wave, and a base unit for movably supporting the holder. A guide mechanism provided in the base unit guides a puncture needle. Moving the probe held in the holder moves a beam scan plane, and the intersection between the beam scan plane and a puncture route can be moved along the puncture route. The base unit functions as a seat which is brought into contact with a surface of a living body. A plurality of projecting legs may be provided on the base unit. The plurality of projecting legs are provided along the periphery of the movement region in which the wave transmitting and receiving surface of the probe moves.

Abstract: A method for detecting and enhancing edges in an ultrasound image includes the steps of applying an edge detection filter to at least one of a plurality of pixels of an ultrasound image to compute an edge detection value having a magnitude and a direction; and applying either a directional edge enhancement filter or a non-directional smoothing filter to at least one of the plurality of pixels of the ultrasound image.

Abstract: An edge detector executes a process to extract a surface of an inner wall of a left ventricle from a binarized image output from a binarization circuit. A telediastolic edge memory stores an intracardial surface image at the end of ventricular diastole from among intracardial surface images for time phases output from the edge detector. A displacement detector unit detects the amount of displacement for each site of the intracardial surface between time phases from the intracardial surface image at the telediastolic which is output from the telediastolic edge memory, a current intracardial surface image which is output from the edge detector, and a center-of-mass coordinate of the intracardial section at the telediastolic point which is stored in a telediastolic center-of-mass memory. A coloring processor unit applies a coloring process to each site of the surface of the current intracardial surface image based on the amount of displacement and outputs the result to an image synthesizer unit.

Abstract: A signal generation unit 10 generates, and sends to a transmission circuit 12, a driving signal for forming a transmission pulse. A probe 14 is transmission controlled to transmit ultrasound at a transmission frequency which is set using, as a reference, a resonance frequency of a bubble administered into a living organism, and also at a transmission sound pressure which is set using an expansion ratio of the bubble as a reference. The signal generation unit 10 outputs a transmission pulse having a waveform corresponding to a center frequency of about 1.5 MHz and a transmission sound pressure of about 200 to 300 kPa. With this structure, it is possible to increase a harmonic component obtained from the bubble while suppressing a harmonic component obtained from real tissue, so that extremely high CTR can be obtained.

Abstract: A direction finding radiation detector for detecting the direction of incidence of radioactive rays, comprising: a plurality of scintillators (41, 42, 43) (101, 102, 103) made of the same material, being arranged to overlap circumferentially at least in part so that they are shadowed by each other from radioactive rays incident in circumferential directions and so that light emitted from one of the scintillators is not incident on the other scintillators; and photoreceptor devices (51, 52, 53) (111, 112, 113) having light receiving surfaces optically coupled to the respective scintillators, wherein a combination of proportions of radioactive rays incident directly on the respective scintillators and radioactive rays incident indirectly thereon, being shadowed by the other scintillators, varies with the direction of incidence circumferentially.

Abstract: An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus comprises a cine-memory for temporarily storing a frame line obtained by transmitting and receiving ultrasound. In a stress echo test, the storage region of the cine-memory is divided into the same number of segments as the number of capturing processes (i.e. the number of scenes). Each segment is used as a ring-buffer, and one or a plurality of frame blocks (one or a plurality of moving images) are stored in the corresponding segment in each capturing process. Prior to execution of a plurality of capturing processes, the number of heart beats indicative of the data amount which can be stored in each segment is obtained and the information is then provided to a user.

Abstract: An FSK modulator 20 applies FSK modulation processing to an RF wave supplied from an RF wave oscillator 22, by means of frequency shift keying (FSK) based on a periodical signal sequence supplied from a pattern generator 24, to thereby generate an FSK continuous wave. The continuous wave output from the FSK modulator 20 is delayed in delay circuits 26I and 26Q and is then supplied, as a reference signal, to each of mixers of a receiving mixer 30. Each of the delay circuits 26I and 26Q delays the continuous wave by a delay amount in accordance with a depth of a target position and outputs a delayed reference signal. Thus, demodulation processing is performed with a correlation between a reception signal from the target position and the reference signal being enhanced, and Doppler information from the target position is selectively extracted by a Doppler information analyzing unit 44.

Abstract: A PSK modulator 20 applies digital modulation processing to an RF wave supplied from an RF wave oscillator 22, by means of phase shift keying (PSK) based on a periodical signal sequence supplied from a pattern generator 24, to thereby generate a continuous wave. The continuous wave output from the PSK modulator 20 is delayed in delay circuits 26I and 26Q and is then supplied, as a reference signal, to each of mixers of a receiving mixer 30. Each of the delay circuits 26I and 26Q delays the continuous wave by a delay amount in accordance with a depth of a target position and outputs a delayed reference signal. Thus, demodulation processing is performed with a correlation between a reception signal from the target position and the reference signal being enhanced, and Doppler information from the target position is selectively extracted by a Doppler information analyzing unit 44.

Abstract: A radiation measuring device capable of identifying the incident direction of a radiation ray and energy (segmentation) The directivity characteristics of a plurality of detectors are different from each other. A plurality of energy segmentations are set respectively for a plurality of spectra corresponding to a plurality of detectors, and actual measurement ratio information (a plurality of actual measurement counting ratios) expressing the mutual ratio between integrated counting values for each energy segmentation is computed. The actual measurement ratio information is checked against a plurality of response functions, and, when the compatibility relation between specific actual measurement ratio information and specific theoretical ratio information is found, the incident direction of a radiation ray and an energy segmentation are identified based on that relation.

Abstract: A specific cavity extractor extracts an isolated group corresponding to a left ventricle from among a plurality of isolated groups to which numbers are attached in a labeling section. A major axis slope calculator section sets, as a left ventricle major axis, a straight line passing through a center of mass calculated in a center-of-mass detector section and a major-axis end point detected in a major-axis end detector section. A cavity cross sectional area calculator section calculates a cross sectional area of four cavities for each of a plurality of cutting planes including the left ventricle major-axis. An optimum cross section setter sets, as a four-cavity cross section, a cutting plane in which the cross sectional area of the four cavities becomes maximum.

Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention includes a pressing mechanism capable of appropriately applying a pressing force to a predetermined position on a fractured bone. The pressing mechanism includes an annular belt detachably hung around a leg in which a shinbone (i.e., a target bone) is present, a deadweight connected to a lower end of the annular belt and having a weight value corresponding to a desired pressing force, and a mobile base positioned under the deadweight and movable in an up-and-down direction. If the mobile base moves downward, the deadweight separates from the mobile base and is brought into a free state where a pressing force acts on the target bone. If the mobile base moves upward, the deadweight is supported by the mobile base and the target bone is released from the pressing force.

Abstract: A surface point tracked by an echo tracking processor unit for each ultrasonic beam is a tracking point. A strain measurement unit measures an amount of strain of a bone based on the surface points. A delay time measurement unit measures a time for the amount of strain of the bone to reach a return reference value, corresponding to a state before a load is applied, after the load is first applied to the bone and then removed.

Abstract: A system and method is disclosed that examines Doppler spectrum signals output by an ultrasound system when measuring blood flow velocity to determine a proper Doppler gain and to suppress noise manifest in the Doppler spectrum. Noise present in the Doppler spectrum is examined and used as a criterion for optimal gain. If the Doppler gain is too high or too low in accordance with predetermined levels, overall gain is adjusted accordingly.

Abstract: A computerized tomography device using an X-ray reconstructs a CT image of a sample and processes the CT image. Brown adipose candidate pixels are extracted based on a CT number of each pixel reconstructing the CT image. An erroneous pixel removal process is applied to the candidate pixels. In the erroneous pixel removal process, a boundary pixel removal process, a contraction and expansion process, or the like are applied. With this process, only the brown adipose pixels are extracted. An amount of brown adipose is determined from the brown adipose pixels and an evaluation value such as a brown adipose percentage is calculated based on the amount of brown adipose and amounts of other tissues.