ULTRASONIC IMAGING DEVICE AND INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE

摘要

Provided is an ultrasonic imaging device that noninvasively measures the stiffness of the cardiac muscle, which is the heart muscle, or intracardiac pressure, which is the blood pressure inside the heart. The ultrasonic imaging device includes: an ultrasonic probe (2) that transmits and receives ultrasonic waves to and from the heart, which is the target organ inside the body; a signal-processing section (15) that processes reflected echo signals received by the ultrasonic probe; a display section (14) that displays the results of signal processing as an image; and an input section (10) for setting a predetermined point on the image displayed on the display section. The signal-processing section (15) includes: a shape-extracting section (152) that perceives information on the shape of the heart from the reflected echo signals; a natural-frequency detecting section (153) that detects the natural frequency of the heart from the reflected echo signals; and a calculating section (154) that calculates the stiffness of the cardiac muscle or the intracardiac pressure, wherein the calculating section (154) accurately calculates the stiffness of the cardiac muscle from the natural frequency of the heart and calculates the intracardiac pressure from the stiffness of the cardiac muscle that has been calculated.