Patent ID: 8388537
Filing Date: 2013-03-05
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic probe that transmits and receives an ultrasonic signal to/from a object; a transmission controller that controls transmission of, for ultrasonic signals transmitted by the ultrasonic probe, a first transmission ultrasonic signal and a second transmission ultrasonic signal obtained by reversing the polarity of the first transmission ultrasonic signal; a signal processor that detects and processes to obtain, for ultrasonic signals received by the ultrasonic probe, a phase shift of a summed signal of a first reception signal and a second reception signal, the first reception signal being based on the first transmission ultrasonic signal and the second reception signal being based on the second transmission ultrasonic signal; and a signal discriminator that discriminates between a reflection echo signal from a contrast agent and a reflection echo signal from body tissue of the object, based on the phase shift of the summed signal that has been detected and processed with the signal processor.