Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, diagnostic imaging apparatus, and program

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

• a computer;
• a non-transitory computer readable medium storing program instructions which when executed by the computer results in performance of steps comprising,
• initiating ultrasonic scanning of the same region in a patient two or more times from different echo windows, so as to overlap at least one part,
• acquiring a three-dimensional image data group on the patient, the three-dimensional image data group consisting of three-dimensional image data continued in time by the ultrasonic scanning from the different echo windows,
• acquiring at least one of a heart synchronized signal synchronizing with workings of a heart of the patient and an aspiration synchronized signal synchronizing with aspiration of the patient, when the three-dimensional image data group on the patient is acquired,
• detecting an overlapped region of the three-dimensional data acquired by the ultrasonic scanning from different echo windows, for the three dimensional image data group acquired in the same time phase in synchronization with the heart synchronized signal or aspiration synchronized signal,
• combining the three-dimensional image data acquired by the ultrasonic scanning from different echo windows, based on the overlapped region,
• generating a panorama three-dimensional image data group consisting of panorama three-dimensional image data which are continued in time and have a display area larger than each of the three-dimensional image data,
• dividing the overlapped regions in three-dimensional image data, into segments;
• generating, for each echo window within each said divided segment, a histogram of the frequency of pixel brightness against the number of gray levels,
• comparing the histograms for each echo window within each said divided segment and selecting the three-dimensional image data, whose central frequency in the histogram is the highest, as the three-dimensional image data adopted in the combining step.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing program instructions configured to operate a computer as an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and to cause the computer to perform steps comprising:

• initiating ultrasonic scanning of the same region in a patient two or more times from different echo windows, so as to overlap at least one part;
• acquiring a three-dimensional image data group on the patient, the three-dimensional image data group consisting of three-dimensional image data continued in time by the ultrasonic scanning from the different echo windows;
• acquiring at least one of a heart synchronized signal synchronizing with workings of a heart of the patient and an aspiration synchronized signal synchronizing with aspiration of the patient, when the three-dimensional image data group on the patient is acquired;
• and
• detecting an overlapped region of the three-dimensional data acquired by the ultrasonic scanning from different echo windows, for the three dimensional image data group acquired in the same time phase in synchronization with the heart synchronized signal or aspiration synchronized signal;
• combining the three-dimensional image data acquired by the ultrasonic scanning from different echo windows, based on the overlapped region;
• generating a panorama three-dimensional image data group consisting of panorama three-dimensional image data which are continued in time and have a display area larger than each of the three-dimensional image data;
• dividing the overlapped regions in three-dimensional image data, into segments;
• acquiring for each divided segment an average luminance of pixel values included in the image data of each echo window within said each divided segment;
• and
• selecting based on the average luminance acquired for each divided segment, the image data of only that echo window having a highest average luminance within each said divided segment to be used for the three-dimensional image data adopted for the combining step.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising:

• a computer;
• a non-transitory computer readable medium storing program instructions which when executed by the computer results in performance of steps comprising,
• initiating ultrasonic scanning of the same region in a patient two or more times from different echo windows, so as to overlap at least one part,
• acquiring a three-dimensional image data group on the patient, the three-dimensional image data group consisting of three-dimensional image data continued in time by the ultrasonic scanning from the different echo windows,
• acquiring at least one of a heart synchronized signal synchronizing with workings of a heart of the patient and an aspiration synchronized signal synchronizing with aspiration of the patient, when the three-dimensional image data group on the patient is acquired,
• detecting an overlapped region of the three-dimensional data acquired by the ultrasonic scanning from different echo windows, for the three dimensional image data group acquired in the same time phase in synchronization with the heart synchronized signal or aspiration synchronized signal,
• combining the three-dimensional image data acquired by the ultrasonic scanning from different echo windows, based on the overlapped region,
• generating a panorama three-dimensional image data group consisting of panorama three-dimensional image data which are continued in time and have a display area larger than each of the three-dimensional image data,
• dividing the overlapped regions in three-dimensional image data, into segments;
• generating, for each echo window within each said divided segment, a histogram of the frequency of pixel brightness against the number of gray levels in the three-dimensional image data;
• setting, for each echo window within each said divided segment, a region corresponding to frequency components higher than a center frequency of each histogram as a specific part, and
• comparing the histograms for each echo window within each said divided segment and selecting the three-dimensional image data which includes more frequency components corresponding to the specific part as the three-dimensional image data to be adopted in the combining step.