Patent ID: 11918419
Assignee: CANON MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 8:
9. An ultrasound probe diagnosing method performed by an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus connectable with an ultrasound probe, which comprises a plurality of elements configured to transmit an ultrasound signal and to receive a reflected wave signal from a subject or from air, the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus configured to generate an ultrasound image based on an output of the plurality of elements, wherein the ultrasound probe diagnosing method comprises:
diagnosing states of the plurality of elements of the ultrasound probe based on a feature value of the reflected wave signal received by the ultrasound probe;
generating, based on the diagnosed states of the plurality of elements, a plurality of types of deterioration degree information indicative of deterioration degrees of the plurality of elements, for respective groups of elements that constitute the plurality of elements; and
superimposing the plurality of types of deterioration degree information onto the ultrasound image of the subject in such a manner that each of the plurality of types of deterioration degree information is recognizable;
superimposing a second image, which is an image corresponding to one of the plurality of types of deterioration degree information and involving a deterioration degree larger than a threshold, onto the ultrasound image of the subject in such a manner that the second image covers a region that is based on an output of elements with the deterioration degree larger than the threshold; and
in response to scan conditions for the ultrasound image being changed according to an operation by an operator, correcting the second image based on the changed scan conditions and a number of elements that form a display target image among the ultrasound image, and superimposing the corrected second image onto the display target image,
wherein a ratio rA of a number of elements forming the second image after the correction to a number of elements forming the second image before the correction is smaller than a ratio rB of a number of elements forming the ultrasound image after the correction to a number of elements forming the ultrasound image before the correction (rA<rB); and
causing a display to display a resultant image.