Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-22
2001-11-13
Lateef, Marvin M. (Department: 3737)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
C600S447000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06315731
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for obtaining a biogenic tomogram by irradiating an ultrasonic pulse in vivo and receiving a reflecting wave which is reflected from a biogenic tissue.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, there has been put into practical use an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for obtaining a biogenic tomogram by irradiating an ultrasonic pulse in vivo and receiving a reflecting wave which is reflected from a biogenic tissue. Since the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus can noninvasively diagnose the internal part of the biological material and thus has high safety therefor, this is an indispensable apparatus for a clinical medicine and is widely spread. In particular, the ultrasonic endoscope is used for diagnosing a case which can not be decided by a surface of the biological material and which needs to insert the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus into the celom. This has increased the demand for the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.
FIG. 20
is a block diagram showing a constructional example of a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of a mechanical scanning system.
As shown in
FIG. 20
, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the mechanical scanning system is provided with a controller
22
that a CPU
23
as control means controls. A motor driving circuit
3
is controlled in response to a timing signal of the controller
22
, and a motor drive signal from the motor driving signal
3
causes the rotation of a motor
4
and a vibrator
5
which is mounted to a rotating shaft of the motor
4
at a center of the rotation.
The vibrator
5
supplies, to the controller
22
, via a position detecting circuit
71
a synchronous signal outputted from the position detecting circuit
71
by the rotation of the vibrator
5
, and which is synchronized with the timing signal, thereby emitting an ultrasonic pulse. A transmission signal generator
1
oscillates a transmission signal as a reference under the control operation of the controller
22
. A transmitting amplifier
2
thereafter amplifies the oscillation signal to a necessary level. After that, the amplified signal is supplied to the vibrator
5
, thereby emitting the ultrasonic pulse, for example, to the internal part of the biological material.
The vibrator
5
receives a reflecting wave which is reflected from the biogenic tissue. A receiving amplifier
6
and a band pass filter (labeled as a BPS in the figure)
7
remove an unnecessary signal component from the received signal. After a detecting circuit
8
detects the signal, the detected signal is amplified to a predetermined size by a GAIN/STC
9
as a variable amplifier capable of varying an amplification factor.
A reception signal outputted from the GAIN/STC
9
passes through a low pass filter (labeled as an LPF in the figure)
12
, an A/D converter
13
converts the reception signal into a digital signal, and it is stored into a FIFO
14
. The data stored in the FIFO
14
is coordinatetransformed by an address control
16
and a look-up table (LUT)
17
for coordinate transformation, and stored into a predetermined position in a memory
15
.
The above operation is controlled by the controller
22
at a predetermined periodic interval until one rotation by the vibrator
5
ends. After storing the reception data of one rotation to the memory
15
, the stored data is read out of the memory
15
by the reading-out operation of the address controller
16
and the read-out data is supplied to an interpolating circuit
18
. In the interpolating circuit
18
, an LUT
19
for interpolating process executes an interpolating process, and a video processing circuit
20
performs a process necessary for display after that. The processed signal is thereafter supplied to a monitor
21
, thereby displaying a radial image based on the reception data.
FIG. 21
is a block diagram showing a constructional example of a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of a mechanical scanning system in case of adding a linear display function to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus shown in FIG.
20
.
In
FIG. 21
, the motor driving circuit
3
is controlled in response to the timing signal of the controller
22
and the vibrator
5
is rotated. Synchronously with the timing signal of the controller
22
, the vibrator
5
receives and transmits an ultrasonic wave.
Only a predetermined signal is amplified and taken out of the reception signal by the receiving amplifier
6
, BPF
7
, detecting circuit
8
, and GAIN/STC
9
. The A/D converter
13
converts the taken-out signal to a digital signal and stored into the FIFO
14
. The stores it data is coordinate-transformed by the address controller
16
and LUT
17
for coordinate transformation and stored to a predetermined position in the memory
15
. The aforementioned operation is the same as that of the apparatus shown in
FIG. 20
, and conducted at a predetermined periodic interval until the end of one rotation of the vibrator
5
.
After storing the reception data of one rotation to the memory
15
, the stored data is read out of the memory
15
by the reading-out operation of the address controller
16
and the read-out data is supplied to the interpolating circuit
18
. In the interpolating circuit
18
, the LUT
19
for interpolating process executes the interpolating process for the supplied data, and the interpolated data is thereafter stored into a radial image memory
25
a
and a linear image memory
25
b
of an image memory
25
which is newly provided, based on a writing control by an image output controller
24
. In this case, there is stored to the radial image memory
25
a
the same data as the data outputted to the video processing circuit
20
shown in FIG.
20
. Additionally, there is stored to the linear image memory
25
b
data which corresponds to a tomogram of one frame formed by coupling data at an arbitrary portion that is designated by the radial image which is subjected to the interpolating process as much as a plurality of frames.
The image output controller
24
controls the operation for reading out the data stored to the image memory
25
by the radial image memory
25
a
and linear image memory
25
b,
based on an output mode of a selected image. Similarly to the foregoing apparatus, the read-out data is supplied to the video processing circuit
20
, thereby performing the process necessary for display for the read-out data. The processed data is thereafter supplied to the monitor
21
, which to thereby displays a radial image or a linear image based on the reception data, or an image corresponding to both of them.
Referring to
FIGS. 20 and 21
, when the rotational period of the vibrator
5
is different depending upon a connected scanner (ultrasonic endoscope), another system in which the address controller
16
is changed corresponds thereto. When connecting a scanner which mechanically drives a vibrator different from that in
FIGS. 20 and 21
(such as sector scanning, 3D scanning, and scanning line density variation), another system in which the look-up table
17
for coordinate transformation and address controller
16
are changed corresponds thereto.
However, the FIFO
14
, memory
15
, address controller
16
, and LUT
17
for coordinate transformation are necessary for coordinate-transforming the reception data which the A/D converter
13
converts into digital data by the conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The interpolating circuit
18
and LUT
19
for interpolating process are also necessary for executing the interpolating process. Further, the CPU
23
is necessary for controlling the address controller
16
and controller
22
. As mentioned above, the dedicated coordinate-transforming circuit and interpolating circuit are necessary, and since the processing circuits are high-speed arithmetic circuits, the circuits are made complicated. Because preparing data referred to in the processing step as the LUT for coordinate transformation and LUT for interpolating process, a dedicat
Gondoh Masahiko
Okuno Yoshiyuki
Lateef Marvin M.
Olympus Optical Co,. Ltd.
Ostrolenk Faber Gerb & Soffen, LLP
Patel Maulin
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