Patent ID: 8444567
Filing Date: 2013-05-21
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using an ultrasonic probe of a mechanical radial scanning type for intracavity observation and including an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting ultrasonic waves and receiving ultrasonic echoes, said apparatus comprising: a signal processing unit configured to perform one of orthogonal detection processing and orthogonal sampling processing on a reception signal outputted from said ultrasonic transducer to generate a complex baseband signal having an in-phase component and a quadrature phase component; a memory configured to store the complex baseband signal for at least two frames, each frame of the complex baseband signal being generated based on the ultrasonic echoes received along plural lines in respective one rotation of said ultrasonic transducer; a line selecting unit configured to select one line from among plural lines in each frame based on the complex baseband signal stored in said memory; and an image signal generating unit configured to generate an image signal representing information on blood flow based on the complex baseband signal with reference to the line selected in each frame by said line selecting unit, wherein said line selecting unit is configured to select a line in a first frame and selects, in a second frame subsequent to the first frame, a line corresponding to the complex baseband signal having a highest correlation with the complex baseband signal corresponding to the line selected in the first frame by calculating correlation coefficients of the in-phase components and correlation coefficients of the quadrature phase components between the selected line in the first frame and plural lines in the second frame.