Patent Document ID: 7959571
Application ID: 11765707
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for repeatedly performing scans of, said ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic probe configured to transmit ultrasonic beams to an image capture region in the subject and receive an ultrasonic echo reflected from the image capture region, each scan performed in a scan direction corresponding to the image capture region; an image generating unit configured to generate an ultrasonic diagnosis image of the image capture region based on sound ray data obtained by performing the scans; and an image correcting unit configured to perform a correcting process on the ultrasonic diagnosis image, the correcting process including: sequentially comparing a pixel value of a first pixel in a sound ray direction and pixel values of second pixels adjacent to the first pixel in the scan direction, the sound ray direction being a direction in which the ultrasonic beam is transmitted in the ultrasonic diagnosis image; extracting the first pixels as a sound ray vector image based on a result of the sequence of comparisons by specifying a pixel position in which a pixel value ov[x][y] of the first pixel in the scan direction satisfies conditions: 
 abs ( ov[x][y] ) >abs ( ov[x][y− 1]) and 
 abs ( ov[x][y] ) >abs ( ov[x][y+ 1]) where abs( )expresses a function for obtaining an absolute value, x is the sound ray direction, y is the scan direction, ov[x][y] is the pixel value, and ov[x][y−1] and ov[x][y+1] are pixel values adjacent the pixel valve ov[x][y] in the scan direction; correcting extracted pixel values of the sound ray vector image based on sound ray data corresponding to pixels adjacent to the sound ray vector image in the scan direction; and eliminating the sound ray vector image extracted from the ultrasonic diagnosis image.