Patent ID: 9326750
Filing Date: 2016-05-03
CPC Classification: A61B

Claim Text:
1. An ultrasound diagnostic imaging apparatus, comprising: an ultrasound probe which is driven by a driving signal to output a transmission ultrasound toward a subject and which outputs a received signal obtained by receiving a reflected ultrasound from the subject; a transmission circuit which applies, as the driving signal, a first driving signal to the ultrasound probe so that a puncture needle searching transmission ultrasound is output from the ultrasound probe as the transmission ultrasound, the puncture needle searching transmission ultrasound being a plane-wave; a receiving circuit which receives a puncture needle searching received signal output from the ultrasound probe as the received signal, the puncture needle searching received signal being obtained from the reflected ultrasound which is the puncture needle searching transmission ultrasound reflecting off the subject being received by the ultrasound probe; and a processor which performs control to obtain puncture needle echo information indicating an angle and a position of a puncture needle inserted in the subject from the puncture needle searching received signal received by the receiving circuit, wherein: the transmission circuit applies, as the driving signal, a second driving signal to the ultrasound probe so that a scanning beam which is an ultrasound beam to be focused is output from the ultrasound probe as the transmission ultrasound, and the processor performs control to add delay time to a plurality of received signals obtained by receiving the reflected ultrasound of the scanning beam from the subject and to add up the received signals to generate sound ray data, wherein the sound ray data is generated based on the puncture needle echo information.