Ultrasound diagnostic system and operation method of ultrasound diagnostic system

An operation method of an ultrasound diagnostic system that is configured to acquire an ultrasound image and evaluate a hardness of a tissue of a diagnosis target using an acoustic radiation pressure,

• the ultrasound diagnostic system including an ultrasound observation portion, which has an ultrasound transducer array in which a plurality of ultrasound transducers are arranged, and an ultrasound processor device including a transmission circuit, which comprises a pulse generating circuit configured to generate an ultrasound generating transmission signal and a polarization process transmission signal and transmit the ultrasound generating transmission signal to the plurality of ultrasound transducers, a reception circuit, which outputs a reception signal of reflected waves received by the plurality of ultrasound transducers, and a processor, which evaluates the hardness of the tissue based on the reception signal, the operation method comprising:
• a first signal generation step of controlling the pulse generating circuit within the transmission circuit to generate the ultrasound generating transmission signal consisting of driving pulses to be applied to the plurality of ultrasound transducers, to generate an ultrasonic wave from the plurality of ultrasound transducers;
• a first transmission step of transmitting the ultrasound generating transmission signal generated by the pulse generating circuit within the transmission circuit to the plurality of ultrasound transducers, applying the driving pulse to the plurality of ultrasound transducers to generate the ultrasonic wave including at least an excitation ultrasonic wave that generates the acoustic radiation pressure, and transmitting the generated ultrasonic wave to the tissue;
• an output step of receiving reflected waves from the tissue to which the ultrasonic wave has been delivered, via the plurality of ultrasound transducers, and outputting a reception signal based on the reflected waves received by the plurality of ultrasound transducers, from the reception circuit;
• an evaluation step of evaluating the hardness of the tissue via the processor based on the reception signal output from the reception circuit;
• a second signal generation step of controlling the pulse generating circuit within the transmission circuit to generate the polarization process transmission signal to be transmitted to the plurality of ultrasound transducers, to perform a polarization process on the plurality of ultrasound transducers that have transmitted the ultrasonic waves in a pause period of all transmissions of ultrasonic waves after the transmission of the ultrasonic wave;
• a setting step of, in the pause period after the transmission of the ultrasound generating transmission signal, which generates the ultrasonic wave including at least the excitation ultrasonic wave that generates the acoustic radiation pressure, setting a polarization process time for performing the polarization process within the pause period according to an acoustic output value generated in a case of the transmissions of the ultrasound generating transmission signal and the polarization process transmission signal;
• and
• a polarization step of transmitting the polarization process transmission signal from the transmission circuit to the plurality of ultrasound transducers that have transmitted at least the excitation ultrasonic wave, to perform the polarization process in the polarization process time.