Patent ID: 8041415

Claim:
An ultrasonic diagnosis system comprising: an ultrasonic probe for performing transmission/reception of ultrasonic signals to/from a subject; a storage unit for storing the properties of signals detected with said ultrasonic probe; a correlation computing unit for calculating a correlation coefficient between said properties with and without pressure applied to the subject, and a phase difference between said received signals with and without application of pressure, based upon said properties stored in said storage unit with and without pressure applied to said subject; a computing unit for calculating a displacement of each measurement point, and a strain distribution of tissue of said subject due to said application of pressure, based upon said correlation coefficient and said phase difference calculated by said correlation computing unit; and a display means for displaying said strain distribution, wherein: said correlation computing unit sets measurement points on ultrasonic beam data formed of envelope signals detected with said ultrasonic probe with and without pressure applied to said subject, said envelope signals being stored in said storage unit; the position of each measurement point which exhibits a maximum correlation coefficient between said envelope signals with and without application of pressure is detected by varying said measurement points at least in the ultrasonic beam direction at a pitch half the wavelength of said ultrasonic signals, as well as calculating the phase difference between said received signals with and without application of pressure; and said computing unit includes a displacement computing unit for calculating the displacement of each measurement point due to said application of pressure based upon the position which exhibits said maximum correlation coefficient and said phase difference calculated by said correlation computing unit.