Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus

摘要

A signal generation unit 10 generates, and sends to a transmission circuit 12, a driving signal for forming a transmission pulse. A probe 14 is transmission controlled to transmit ultrasound at a transmission frequency which is set using, as a reference, a resonance frequency of a bubble administered into a living organism, and also at a transmission sound pressure which is set using an expansion ratio of the bubble as a reference. The signal generation unit 10 outputs a transmission pulse having a waveform corresponding to a center frequency of about 1.5 MHz and a transmission sound pressure of about 200 to 300 kPa. With this structure, it is possible to increase a harmonic component obtained from the bubble while suppressing a harmonic component obtained from real tissue, so that extremely high CTR can be obtained.

主权项

1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, comprising:
a probe that transmits and receives ultrasound with respect to a diagnostic region including a bubble; a transmission control unit that controls the probe to transmit ultrasound under transmission conditions which are set based on structural characteristics of a bubble; a reception processing unit that obtains a reception signal corresponding to ultrasound received by the probe; a harmonic extraction unit that processes the reception signal to extract a harmonic component contained in the reception signal; and an image forming unit that forms image data concerning the bubble based on the harmonic component, wherein the transmission control unit controls the probe to transmit the ultrasound at a transmission frequency which is set using a resonance frequency of the bubble as a reference and at a transmission sound pressure which is set using an expansion ratio of the bubble as a reference, wherein the control unit is configured to determine the transmission frequency and the sound pressure based on harmonic signals of the bubble being substantially the same as fundamental signals of the bubble while harmonic signals from the tissue being substantially lower relative to fundamental signals from the tissue.