Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-30
2001-11-13
Lateef, Marvin M. (Department: 3737)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
active
06315722
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is based upon Japanese Patent Application No. 10-65733 filed on Mar. 30, 1998, and Japanese Patent Application No. 11-89000 filed on Mar. 30, 1999, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic device that enables to obtain diagnostically optimum images using stored data.
2. Description of the Related Arts
The ultrasonic diagnostic device has been used for diagnosis of diseased parts in body cavities.
The device transmits ultrasonic waves from its ultrasonic transducer attached to the distal end of a catheter inserted into a body cavity such as a vein or vessel, receives the echoes reflected from reflective members of the subject, and displays them as images on a display such as a CRT (cathode ray tube) after processing such as amplification and detection.
The operator of the device first inserts the ultrasonic catheter into the body cavity, and records the ultrasonic images on a video cassette as this ultrasonic catheter is being out or starting prior to that. After the operation, the recorded ultrasonic images will be reproduced to provide a detailed diagnosis for the subject.
However, the operator typically has contradicting desires, a desire to minimize the time of inserting the catheter, which is a foreign object, in the body cavity of the subject, and a desire to take as much time as possible for adjusting images to obtain optimum images during the operation.
As both of these desires cannot be satisfied simultaneously, the operator ends up compromising on the image adjusting time in reality.
Further, since the ultrasonic images are recorded on a video cassette recorder as video signals, it is impossible to add adjustments such as dynamic range adjustment, gamma correction, STC (sensitivity time control) and the like to the images after the operation, or to obtain images with altered circuit characteristics such as filter characteristics.
Therefore, it is difficult to conduct diagnosis based on optimum images using a device of the prior art and the development of a ultrasonic diagnostic device that provides images more suitable for diagnosis is desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of this invention is to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic device that makes it possible to perform signal processing after the operation by means of storing the obtained signals as special digital data, thus to be able to obtain optimum images for diagnosis.
The present invention with the intention of achieving said object comprises; an ADC (analog-digital converter) for converting signals received, which are ultrasonic waves transmitted to a subject by exciting an ultrasonic transducer built into a catheter and then reflected back from the subject; a time axis extension unit that is capable of writing the data obtained from said ADC as well as reading said data at a frequency lower than the frequency used at the time of writing; a data compression unit for compressing the data read by said time extension unit; a memory unit for writing the data compressed by said data compression unit; a data expanding unit for reading and expanding the compressed data stored in said memory unit; and a DAC (digital-analog converter) for converting the data expanded by said data expanding unit; wherein the analog output from said DAC is filtered, logarithmically converted, detected, converted into a digital format again, and inputted into a digital scan converter so that optimum images for diagnosis can be obtained.
Consequently, a device according to this invention can store image signals reflected from the subject as digital data so that optimum images for diagnosis can be obtained by processing the stored signals even after the operation.
This device can prevent noise interference and make the device configuration simpler as the stored digital data can be used as they are without having to convert them from a digital format to an analog format and converting back from an analog format to a digital format.
This device allows us to use a mass storage removable medium and to store a large volume of image data in said mass storage removable medium.
Furthermore, the applicability of this device can be widened by issuing output signals based on existing image standards.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5231573 (1993-07-01), Takamizawa
patent: 5507293 (1996-04-01), Tannaka et al.
patent: 5690111 (1997-11-01), Tsujino
patent: WO 97/09930 (1997-03-01), None
Burns Doane , Swecker, Mathis LLP
Lateef Marvin M.
Patel Maulin
Terumo Kabushiki Kaisha Shibuya-ku
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