Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and fat fraction estimation method

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising:

• an ultrasound probe configured to transmit a first ultrasonic wave having a first frequency characteristic into a two-dimensional region within a liver of a subject to obtain first reception information, and to transmit a second ultrasonic wave having a second frequency characteristic different from the first frequency characteristic into the two-dimensional region to obtain second reception information;
• and
• a processor,
• wherein the two-dimensional region corresponds to a plurality of reception beams aligned in an electronic scanning direction,
• the first reception information comprises a plurality of first reception beam data obtained from the two-dimensional region,
• the second reception information comprises a plurality of second reception beam data obtained from the two-dimensional region, and
• the processor is configured to:
• calculate, based on the plurality of first reception beam data, a first parameter group including a first attenuation coefficient, a first attenuation average, and a first attenuation variation;
• calculate, based on the plurality of second reception beam data, a second parameter group including a second attenuation coefficient, a second attenuation average, and a second attenuation variation;
• and
• calculate an estimated value of a fat fraction based on a parameter set including the first parameter group and the second parameter group;
• wherein the processor is further configured to:
• generate first reference information to be compared with the first reception information and second reference information to be compared with the second reception information,
• calculate the first attenuation coefficient based on the first reception information and the first reference information, and
• calculate the second attenuation coefficient based on the second reception information and the second reference information,
• the first reference information is defined by a first reference intensity function, and the second reference information is defined by a second reference intensity function,
• the first reception information is a first reception intensity matrix P1(x), and the second reception information is a second reception intensity matrix P2(x), and
• the first reference information is a first reference intensity sequence Pref1(x), and the second reference information is a second reference intensity sequence Pref2(x).