Patent ID: 8597191

Claim:
An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising: a Doppler scanner configured to perform Doppler scanning by serially transmitting and receiving ultrasound toward and from each of a plurality of observation points in a subject at a plurality of respective times; a processor configured to generate a first Doppler spectrum image representing the velocity of a moving body at each observation point by analyzing the frequency of signals received at the plurality of observation points acquired via Doppler scanning; an interpolator configured to acquire a second Doppler spectrum image by interpolation based on the first Doppler spectrum image at each observation point generated by the processor, the second Doppler spectrum image being at each observation point when the ultrasound has not been transmitted to and received from each observation point by the Doppler scanner transmitting and receiving ultrasound toward and from the plurality of observation points at a plurality of respective times, and to combine the first Doppler spectrum at each observation point generated by the processor and the second Doppler spectrum image at each observation point via interpolation for each observation point, in order to generate a third Doppler spectrum at each observation point; and a display controller configured to cause the third Doppler spectrum image at each observation point combined by the interpolator to be displayed on a display, and wherein the interpolator is configured to obtain a quantity of characteristics on the first Doppler spectrum image at each observation point based on the first Doppler spectrum image at each observation point, to receive ECG signals of the sample in order to estimate the second Doppler spectrum image at each observation point via a regression model with a parametric model utilizing the ECG signal and the quantity of characteristics on the first Doppler spectrum image at each observation point, and to generate the third Doppler spectrum image at each observation point by combining the first Doppler spectrum image at each observation point and the estimated second Doppler spectrum image at each observation point per observation point.