Patent ID: 8282551
Filing Date: 2012-10-09
Classification: A61B,G01S

Abstract:
1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: a transmitting and receiving unit for supplying drive signals to plural ultrasonic transducers respectively to transmit ultrasonic waves and converting reception signals, which are respectively outputted from said plural ultrasonic transducers receiving ultrasonic echoes, into digital signals; a signal processing unit configured to perform reception focus processing and envelope detection processing on the digital signals to sequentially generate envelope data; a storage unit configured to store the envelope data for at least one frame generated by said signal processing unit; an image data generating unit configured to generate image data representing an ultrasonic image based on the envelope data supplied from one of said signal processing unit and said storage unit; a speckle analyzing unit configured to generate speckle analysis result data representing a speckle analysis result based on the envelope data supplied from one of said signal processing unit and said storage unit, wherein said speckle analyzing unit includes a memory for storing the envelope data for at least one frame; a display unit configured to display the ultrasonic image and the corresponding speckle analysis result based on the image data generated by said image data generating unit and the speckle analysis result data generated by said speckle analyzing unit; an input unit configured to set a ROI (region of interest) in the ultrasonic image displayed on said display unit; and a computation part configured to calculate a histogram, a probability density distribution, and a Rayleigh distribution on values of the envelope data corresponding to the ROI set by using said input unit among the envelope data stored in said memory, and further configured to calculate a mean value of P(A)/R(A) as a first parameter and a mean value of absolute values of (1-P(A)/R(A)) as a second parameter, where “A” represents a value of the envelope data, P(A) represents the probability density distribution, and R(A) represents the Rayleigh distribution, and to compare first and second parameters with respective threshold values to judge whether a tissue appearing in the ROI is normal or not and judge whether a number of samples is sufficient or not.