Ultrasonic imaging apparatus and a method of acquiring ultrasonic images

An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising:

• a transceiving part configured to transmit and receive ultrasound with a repetition frequency that corresponds to a velocity range indicating the measurable velocity, to and from a diagnostic site that contains a moving fluid within a body to be examined;
• a Doppler signal-processing part configured to generate a Doppler spectrum image that shows the velocity of said moving fluid based on signals obtained from the transmission and reception of said ultrasound;
• a memory part configured to preliminarily store a modeled value based on a model that correlates a standard blood velocity waveform with an ECG waveform;
• a measured waveform calculation part configured to calculate a measured blood velocity waveform based on said spectrum image of a specified patient;
• an ECG waveform acquisition part configured to acquire an ECG waveform at a timing corresponding to said measured blood velocity waveform;
• a waveform estimation part configured to estimate a blood velocity waveform of said patient based on said measured blood velocity waveform, said ECG waveform, and said modeled value;
• and
• a velocity range setup part configured to compare said measured blood velocity waveform with said estimated blood velocity waveform and to calculate said velocity range based on said measured blood velocity waveform from which excess parts of the difference over a threshold are excluded.

An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising:

• a transceiving part configured to transmit and receive ultrasound with a repetition frequency based on a velocity range indicating the measurable velocity, to and from a diagnostic site that contains a moving fluid within a body to be examined;
• a Doppler signal-processing part configured to generate a Doppler spectrum image that shows the velocity of said moving fluid based on signals obtained from the transmission and reception of said ultrasound;
• a memory part configured to preliminarily store a value modeled on a model of a commonly used standard blood velocity waveform based on statistical data of an individual ECG waveform and a standard blood velocity waveform that corresponds to it;
• and
• an abnormality determination part that creates a state space, which is an area that includes a blood velocity waveform that can be considered as a normal state, based on statistical data of said individual ideal blood velocity waveform and determines that a blood velocity is abnormal when the Mahalanobis' generalized distance of said measured bloodstream information from the state space exceeds a predetermined threshold.

A method of acquiring ultrasonic images comprising:

• transmitting and receiving ultrasound with a repetition frequency that corresponds to a velocity range indicating the measurable velocity, to and from a diagnostic site that contains a moving fluid within a body to be examined;
• generating a Doppler spectrum image that shows the velocity of said moving fluid based on signals obtained from the transmission and reception of said ultrasound;
• preliminarily storing a modeled value based on a model that correlates a standard blood velocity waveform with an ECG waveform;
• calculating a measured blood velocity waveform based on said spectrum image of a specified patient;
• acquiring an ECG waveform at a timing corresponding to said measured blood velocity waveform;
• estimating a blood velocity waveform of said patient based on said measured blood velocity waveform, said ECG waveform, and said modeled value;
• and
• comparing said measured blood velocity waveform with said estimated blood velocity waveform, to exclude excess parts of the difference over a threshold from said measured blood velocity waveform, and to interpolate the excluded part of said measured blood velocity waveform.

A method of acquiring ultrasonic images comprising:

• transmitting and receiving ultrasound with a repetition frequency that corresponds to a velocity range indicating the measurable velocity, to and from a diagnostic site that contains a moving fluid within a body to be examined;
• generating a Doppler spectrum image that shows the velocity of said moving fluid based on signals obtained from the transmission and reception of said ultrasound;
• preliminarily storing a modeled value based on a model that correlates a standard blood velocity waveform with an ECG waveform;
• calculating a measured blood velocity waveform based on said spectrum image of a specified patient;
• acquiring an ECG waveform at a timing corresponding to said measured blood velocity waveform;
• estimating a blood velocity waveform of said patient based on said measured blood velocity waveform, said ECG waveform, and said modeled value;
• and
• comparing said measured blood velocity waveform with said estimated blood velocity waveform to calculate said velocity range based on said measured blood velocity waveform from which excess parts of the difference over a threshold are excluded.