Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

• an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a body to be examined;
• control means for automatically determining the optimum image conditions on the basis of echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer based on the received ultrasonic waves;
• echo signal amplifying means for amplifying the echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer;
• said control means for automatically determining the optimum image conditions including echo signal amplification factor control means for automatically controlling an amplification factor of said echo signal amplifying means on the basis of the echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer;
• histogram forming means for forming a first histogram on the basis of the echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer, in which the histogram represented by the histogram information is formed by taking brightness values of an image to be displayed on an abscissa as gradations and taking the numbers of pixels having the respective corresponding brightness values on an ordinate as frequencies;
• compared value detecting means for detecting a compared value on the basis of the first histogram information;
• and
• amplification factor determining means for comparing the compared value obtained by said compared value detecting means with a predetermined value and for determining the echo signal amplification factor so as to eliminate the difference between the compared value and the reference value, wherein the echo signals are amplified by said echo signal amplifying means in accordance with the determined echo signal amplification factor;
• said echo signal amplification factor control means further including means for smoothing the first histogram;
• said compared value detecting means including means for detecting a brightness value at a gradation to which a peak value of the smoothed histogram is located on the basis of the first histogram.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

• an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a body to be examined;
• control means for automatically determining the optimum image conditions on the basis of echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer based on the received ultrasonic waves;
• individual echo signal amplifying means for amplifying an echo signal individually for each visual field depth on the basis of the echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer;
• individual echo signal amplification factor control means for automatically controlling amplification factors of said individual echo signal amplifying means for the respective visual field depths in an ultrasonic beam direction on the basis of the echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer, said individual echo signal amplification factor control means including;
• means for extracting a plurality of reference areas including the echo signals at the respective visual field depths in the ultrasonic beam direction on the basis of the echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer;
• histogram forming means for forming a histogram on the basis of the echo signals in each of the extracted reference areas, in which the histogram is formed by taking brightness values of an image to be displayed on an abscissa as gradations and taking the numbers of pixels having the respective corresponding brightness values on an ordinate as frequencies;
• compared value detecting means for detecting a compared value from the respective histogram information;
• and
• amplification factor determining means for comparing each of the compared values obtained by said compared value detecting means with a predetermined reference value and for determining the echo signal amplification factors so as to eliminate the respective differences between each of the compared values and the reference value, respectively, wherein the echo signals for the respective visual field depths are amplified by said individual echo signal amplifying means in accordance with the determined echo signal amplification factors, respectively;
• said echo signal amplification factor control means including means for smoothing the formed histogram information.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

• an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a body to be examined;
• control means for automatically determining the optimum image conditions on the basis of echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer based on the received ultrasonic waves basis;
• contrast adjusting means for adjusting contrast level of an image to be displayed on the basis of the echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer;
• said control means for automatically determining the optimum image condition including contrast control means for automatically controlling the contrast level adjusted by said contrast adjusting means based on the echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer;
• histogram forming means for forming histogram information on the basis of the echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer, in which a histogram represented by the histogram information is formed by taking brightness values of an image to be displayed on an abscissa as gradations and taking the numbers of pixels having the respective corresponding brightness values on an ordinate as frequencies;
• compared value detecting means for detecting a compared value on the basis of the histogram information;
• and
• contrast level determining means for comparing the compared value obtained by said compared value detecting means with a predetermined reference value and for determining the contrast adjustment level so as to eliminate the difference between the compared value and the predetermined reference value, wherein the contrast level is adjusted by amplifying the echo signals through said contrast adjusting means in accordance with the determined contrast adjustment level.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

• an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a body to be examined;
• control means for automatically determining the optimum image conditions based on a histogram formed from echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer based on the received ultrasonic waves;
• contrast adjusting means for adjusting contrast level of an image to be displayed on the basis of the echo signal obtained by said ultrasonic transducer;
• said control means for automatically determining the optimum image condition including contrast control means for automatically controlling the contrast level adjusted by said contrast adjusting means on the basis of the echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer;
• and
• means for smoothing the formed histogram.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising:

• an ultrasonic transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a body to be examined;
• echo signal amplifying means for amplifying echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer based on the received ultrasonic waves;
• echo signal amplification factor control means for automatically controlling amplification factor of said echo signal amplifying means on the bases of a first histogram formed from the obtained echo signals and a predetermined reference histogram corresponding to the optimum image condition having a certain brightness;
• individual echo signal amplifying means for amplifying an echo signal individually for each visual field depth on the basis of the obtained echo signals;
• individual echo signal amplification factor control means for automatically controlling the amplification factors of said individual echo signal amplifying means for the respective visual field depths in an ultrasonic beam direction on the bases of a second histogram formed from the obtained echo signals and a predetermined reference histogram corresponding to the optimum image condition having a certain brightness;
• contrast adjusting means for adjusting contrast level of an image displayed on the basis of echo signals obtained by said ultrasonic transducer;
• and
• contrast control means for automatically controlling the contrast level adjusted by said contrast adjusting means on the bases of a third histogram formed from the echo signals and a predetermined reference histogram corresponding to the optimum image condition having a certain contrast.

A method of diagnosing a living body by ultrasonic waves, comprising the steps of:

• transmitting ultrasonic waves to a body to be examined and receiving echoes from the body, and then converting the received echoes into echo signals;
• amplifying the echo signals at an amplification factor;
• forming a histogram on the basis of the echo signals, in which the histogram is formed by taking image brightness values of an abscissa as gradations and taking the numbers of pixels having the respective corresponding image brightness values on an ordinate as frequencies;
• detecting a compared value from the formed histogram;
• comparing the compared value of the formed histogram with a predetermined value of a reference histogram corresponding to the optimum image condition;
• determining the echo signal amplification factor so as to eliminate the difference between the two values;
• and
• displaying an ultrasonic image under optimum image conditions on the basis of the echo signals amplified in accordance with the determined amplification factor.

A method of diagnosing a living body by ultrasonic waves, comprising the steps of:

• transmitting ultrasonic waves to a body to be examined and receiving echoes from the body, and then converting the received echoes into echo signals;
• comparing data obtained from the echo signals and predetermined reference data corresponding to an optimum image condition;
• controlling an image condition using feed-back in such a way that the obtained data coincides with the reference data;
• and
• displaying an ultrasonic image in accordance with the controlled image condition.