ULTRASOUND IMAGING APPARATUS, SIGNAL PROCESSOR, AND SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD

• Main Authors: Ikeda, Teiichiro, Tanaka, Chizue, Amino, Kazuhiro, Maruyama, Misaki
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 29.12.2022
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; DIAGNOSIS; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HYGIENE; IDENTIFICATION; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; SURGERY; TESTING

Provided is an ultrasound imaging apparatus capable of reducing examination time with optimizing parameters on an examination basis. A subject is irradiated with an ultrasound wave, and a plurality of ultrasound transducers receives the ultrasound wave from the subject to obtain received signals. A feature value is calculated from the received signals, the feature value indicating a frequency-dependent characteristic of attenuation of the ultrasound wave, associated with propagation of the ultrasound wave through the subject. A predetermined processing is performed on the received signals using one or more received-signal processing parameters to generate an image. An image processing is performed on the generated image using one or more image processing parameters. Values of the received-signal processing parameter and the image processing parameter are determined based on the feature value.