Ultrasound diagnosis apparatus

摘要

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus that can generate and display 3D ultrasound image data of superior image quality in real time is provided. To achieve a high volume rate for acquiring 3D ultrasound image data, the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus performs 3D scans on a 3D region of an object while sequentially shifting a transmission/reception group that is comprised of each of the transmitting acoustic fields and more than five parallel simultaneous reception beam directions corresponded to each of the transmitting acoustic fields at a prescribed angular distance Δξ0 along the θ (azimuth) direction and the φ (elevation) direction.

主权项

1. An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus configured to generate three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound image data based on ultrasound receiving signals acquired through 3D scans using a parallel simultaneous reception method, the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to cause a scan controller to set an ultrasound transmitting acoustic field and a plurality of parallel simultaneous reception beam directions corresponding to a center axis of the transmitting acoustic field and to perform the 3D scans by sequentially shifting the transmitting acoustic field and the plurality of parallel simultaneous reception beam directions corresponding to the transmitting acoustic field along a prescribed direction; an ultrasound probe including a plurality of two-dimensional (2D) array transducers; a transmission circuit configured to emit ultrasound transmission beams by driving the plurality of transducers; a reception circuit configured to perform parallel simultaneous reception of the ultrasound receiving signals of a plurality of channels acquired through each of the plurality of parallel simultaneous reception beam directions by delaying and summing, respectively; and an image data generating processor configured to generate the 3D ultrasound image data based on the delayed and summed ultrasound receiving signals acquired from each of the parallel simultaneous reception beam directions that are sequentially shifted in the prescribed direction, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the scan controller to set, as the plurality of parallel simultaneous reception beam directions, exactly eight parallel simultaneous reception beam directions, all of the set plurality of parallel simultaneous reception beam directions corresponding to the transmitting acoustic field are equally spaced with a same pitch in each of two orthogonal directions by shifting the parallel simultaneous reception beam directions, and the processor is configured to cause the scan controller to shift the transmitting acoustic field by an amount equal to twice the pitch between the reception beam directions.