Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes: a positional displacement calculating section for calculating the magnitudes of positional displacements at multiple measuring points within a body tissue; a thickness variation calculating section for calculating thicknesses or thickness variations, each measured between two arbitrary points within the tissue set with respect to the measuring points, based on the magnitudes of positional displacements; and a maximum/minimum value calculating section for finding the maximum and minimum thicknesses or thickness variations during a maximum value finding period and a minimum value finding period. At least one of the greatest thickness difference, strain and elastic property is calculated based on a difference between the maximum and minimum thicknesses or thickness variations.

Abstract: An image compression unit includes a block divider that divides image data into a plurality of blocks, a DCT portion that subjects the image data of each block to DCT, a quantization factor output portion that outputs a quantization factor as a numerical value indicative of fineness of quantization, a correction value computation portion that computes a correction value that is determined uniquely according to a position of a block of image data, a quantizer that quantizes the data having been subjected to DCT, based on a value obtained by multiplying the correction value by the quantization factor, and an encoder that encodes the quantized data and outputs compressed data. This configuration makes it possible to provide an image compression/decompression unit that is capable of varying a compression ratio in a frame, without encoding compression parameters of each block.

Abstract: An object of the invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that can conduct elastic modulus measurement with high accuracy without enlarging the circuit scale. A calculator 3 uses a signal from a receiver-transmitter 2 to calculate the motion velocity or the move displacement of body tissue and the strain variation of the body tissue. A frequency analyzer 4 conducts frequency analysis of the motion velocity and the move displacement of the body tissue found in the calculator 3. A strain induced by stress and elastic wave separator 5 separates a frequency component with strain of an arterial wall caused by blood pressure change caused by pulsation of the heart, a frequency component of vibration caused by flow of blood into the lumen of artery, and a frequency component of noise based on the determination result of the frequency analyzer 4.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes: a transmitting section for driving an ultrasonic probe sending out an ultrasonic transmitted wave toward a body tissue of an organism; a receiving section for receiving an ultrasonic reflected wave, produced by getting the transmitted wave reflected by the body tissue, through the probe; a phase detecting section for detecting the phase of the reflected wave; and a computing section for calculating the magnitudes of positional displacement at multiple measuring points on the body tissue based on a signal obtained by the detecting section and calculating the greatest thickness difference between two of the measuring points and/or an elastic property based on the magnitudes of positional displacement.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a transmission unit that transmits at least one ultrasonic pulse from a surface of a skin of a subject toward a blood vessel (21) thereof, a reception unit (3) that receives an ultrasonic echo reflected by the blood vessel and converts the same into an electric signal to obtain a signal of the ultrasonic echo along a depth direction from the surface of the skin, a movement detection unit (5) that analyzes a phase of the ultrasonic echo signal in a direction traversing the blood vessel so as to calculate a movement amount in each of a plurality of parts included in a blood vessel wall constituting the blood vessel and a vicinity of the blood vessel wall, and a boundary detection unit (7) that detects a boundary position between the blood vessel wall and a blood flow region (22) in a lumen of the blood vessel through which blood flows based on a variation in the calculated movement amount in each part.

Abstract: An image compression unit includes a block divider 11 that divides image data into a plurality of blocks, a DCT portion 12 that subjects the image data of each block to DCT, a quantization factor output portion 15 that outputs a quantization factor as a numerical value indicative of fineness of quantization, a correction value computation portion 16 that computes a correction value that is determined uniquely according to a position of a block of image data, a quantizer 13 that quantizes the data having been subjected to DCT, based on a value obtained by multiplying the correction value by the quantization factor, and an encoder 14 that encodes the quantized data and outputs compressed data. This configuration makes it possible to provide an image compression/decompression unit that is capable of varying a compression ratio in a frame, without encoding compression parameters of each block.

Abstract: An object of the invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that can conduct elastic modulus measurement with high accuracy without enlarging the circuit scale. A calculator 3 uses a signal from a receiver-transmitter 2 to calculate the motion velocity or the move displacement of body tissue and the strain variation of the body tissue. A frequency analyzer 4 conducts frequency analysis of the motion velocity and the move displacement of the body tissue found in the calculator 3. A strain induced by stress and elastic wave separator 5 separates a frequency component with strain of an arterial wall caused by blood pressure change caused by pulsation of the heart, a frequency component of vibration caused by flow of blood into the lumen of artery, and a frequency component of noise based on the determination result of the frequency analyzer 4.

Abstract: The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the invention evaluates a shape or qualitative property of an organism's arterial wall tissue and includes: a delay control section 3 for controlling delays for ultrasonic vibrators 1 in an ultrasonic probe 2; a transmitting section 5 for driving the probe under the control of the control section 3 such that the probe 2 transmits a first ultrasonic beam toward different locations within a scan region, defined along the axis of the artery, every predetermined frame period; a receiving section 6 for receiving ultrasonic echoes, generated by getting the first beam reflected by the wall, at the probe every set of frame periods, thereby outputting a first group of ultrasonic echo signals; and a signal processing section 13 for calculating a thickness variation, or elasticity, of the tissue between measuring points on the tissue in response to the first group of echo signals.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention includes: a transmitting section 14 for driving an ultrasonic probe 13 sending out an ultrasonic transmitted wave toward a tissue of an organism; a receiving section 15 for receiving an ultrasonic reflected wave, produced by getting the ultrasonic transmitted wave reflected by the tissue of the organism, through the ultrasonic probe to generate a received signal; a phase detecting section 17 for detecting the phase of the received signal to generate a phase detected signal; a positional displacement calculating section 31a for calculating the magnitudes of positional displacements at multiple measuring points, set on the tissue of the organism, based on the phase detected signal; a thickness variation calculating section 31b for calculating thicknesses or thickness variations, each measured between two arbitrary points set with respect to the measuring points, based on the magnitudes of positional displacements; and a maximum/minimum value

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a transmission unit that transmits at least one ultrasonic pulse from a surface of a skin of a subject toward a blood vessel (21) thereof, a reception unit (3) that receives an ultrasonic echo reflected by the blood vessel and converts the same into an electric signal to obtain a signal of the ultrasonic echo along a depth direction from the surface of the skin, a movement detection unit (5) that analyzes a phase of the ultrasonic echo signal in a direction traversing the blood vessel so as to calculate a movement amount in each of a plurality of parts included in a blood vessel wall constituting the blood vessel and a vicinity of the blood vessel wall, and a boundary detection unit (7) that detects a boundary position between the blood vessel wall and a blood flow region (22) in a lumen of the blood vessel through which blood flows based on a variation in the calculated movement amount in each part.

Abstract: An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes: a transmitting section for driving an ultrasonic probe sending out an ultrasonic transmitted wave toward a body tissue of an organism; a receiving section for receiving an ultrasonic reflected wave, produced by getting the transmitted wave reflected by the body tissue, through the probe; a phase detecting section for detecting the phase of the reflected wave; and a computing section for calculating the magnitudes of positional displacement at multiple measuring points on the body tissue based on a signal obtained by the detecting section and calculating the greatest thickness difference between two of the measuring points and/or an elastic property based on the magnitudes of positional displacement.

Abstract: The present invention provides an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises an ultrasonic probe (1) for transmitting ultrasonic pulses into a living body and receiving ultrasonic reflected waves from the living body, a phase-detecting section (5) for detecting each phase of the ultrasonic reflected waves, and a phase-difference detecting section (6) for determining a phase difference in the repetition period of the ultrasonic transmitting/receiving operation according to the detected phase signals.

Abstract: The present invention provides an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises an ultrasonic probe (1) for transmitting ultrasonic pulses into a living body and receiving ultrasonic reflected waves from the living body, a phase-detecting section (5) for detecting each phase of the ultrasonic reflected waves, and a phase-difference detecting section (6) for determining a phase difference in the repetition period of the ultrasonic transmitting/receiving operation according to the detected phase signals.

Abstract: An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a transmitting device having an ultrasound probe. The transmitting device operates for transmitting a ultrasound pulse beam from the ultrasound probe into a body. A receiving device includes the ultrasound probe. The receiving device operates for receiving an ultrasound echo beam caused in the body, and converting the received ultrasound echo beam into a corresponding electric echo signal via the ultrasound probe. A delay controlling device is operative for controlling an acoustic line direction of transmission and reception of the ultrasound pulse beam and the ultrasound echo beam. A phase detection device is operative for subjecting the electric echo signal to phase detection to generate a phase-detection result signal. A tissue velocity calculating device operates for calculating a velocity of a tissue in the body from the phase-detection result signal. A display device is operative for indicating the calculated velocity of the tissue.