Patent ID: 7285095

Claim:
A blood-volume analysis-display method of analyzing a contrast echo image of the myocardium and a cardiac chamber so as to determine and display the volume of blood within the myocardium, the contrast echo image being obtained by use of ultrasound diagnostic equipment after injection of a microbubble ultrasound contrast agent into blood vessels, and including a myocardium image region corresponding to the myocardium and a cardiac chamber image region corresponding to the cardiac chamber, the method comprising: (a) finely dividing the contrast echo image into a plurality of calculation regions, each being considered to have a uniform acoustic field intensity and covering a portion of the myocardium image region and a corresponding portion of the cardiac chamber image region; (b) obtaining, for each calculation region, a difference in intensity between the myocardium image region and the cardiac chamber image region, and determining the volume of blood within the myocardium on the basis of the difference; and (c) coloring the myocardium image region in accordance with the determined blood volume.