JP5490649B2 - Ultrasonic data processor - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing ultrasonic data obtained by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves.

  An ultrasonic technique using three-dimensional data collected by scanning an ultrasonic beam is known. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a technique for three-dimensionally specifying the contour of a target tissue based on volume data collected from a three-dimensional space including the target tissue. Thereby, for example, the volume of the target tissue can be calculated.

  In the technique described in Patent Document 1, a plurality of automatic trace reference sections and a plurality of manual trace reference sections are set in a three-dimensional data space. And in each manual trace reference cross section, the manual trace line which shows the outline of object tissue according to user operation is formed. Further, based on the manual trace lines formed in the plurality of manual trace reference sections, trace lines are formed in each automatic trace reference section by interpolation processing or the like. In this way, the contour of the target tissue is identified three-dimensionally based on a large number of trace lines formed in the three-dimensional data space.

  In the technique described in Patent Document 1, even when it is difficult to accurately extract the contour of the target tissue by, for example, binarization processing, according to the user operation, for example, according to the user's visual judgment, The contour of the target tissue can be specified relatively accurately. Further, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, it is possible to extract the contour of the target tissue with extremely high accuracy by further automatically correcting a manual trace line formed in response to a user operation.

  In processing that requires user operation, for example, it is desirable to reduce the burden on the user, and it is also desirable that the accuracy of the trace line finally obtained is high.

JP 2008-142519 A

  In view of the background art described above, the inventor of the present application has conducted research and development on the formation of trace lines according to user operations.

  The present invention has been made in the course of research and development, and an object of the present invention is to provide a device suitable for both the burden on the user and the accuracy with respect to the trace line.

  An ultrasonic data processing apparatus suitable for the above object is an ultrasonic data processing apparatus that forms a trace line corresponding to the contour of an object based on ultrasonic data obtained from a three-dimensional space including the object. A trace section setting unit that sets at least one manual trace section and multiple automatic trace sections in a data space composed of three-dimensionally arranged ultrasound data, and a user operation in each manual trace section. A manual trace line forming unit that forms a manual trace line, an interpolation trace line forming unit that forms an interpolated trace line in each automatic trace section by an interpolation process using the manual trace line as a basic trace line, and each automatic trace For each cross-section, compensation is based on the contour of the object detected in the automatic trace cross-section. A trace line correction unit that corrects a trace line; and an additional cross-section selection unit that selects at least one additional trace cross-section from a plurality of automatic trace cross-sections based on a feature amount indicating the effectiveness of the correction process. And adding the interpolated trace line corrected for each additional trace section to the basic trace line, and re-executing the interpolating process.

  According to the above configuration, an additional trace section is selected from a plurality of automatic trace sections, and the corrected interpolated trace line of the selected additional trace section is used as a basic trace line. Compared with the case where the trace line is formed by the user operation, the burden on the user is reduced. Further, the accuracy of the trace line obtained by the interpolation process is improved as compared with the case where only the manual trace line is used as the basic trace line.

  In a preferred embodiment, the additional section selection unit calculates a correction amount of the interpolation trace line in the correction process for each automatic trace section, and selects at least one additional trace section based on the correction amount. It is characterized by.

  In a preferred embodiment, the additional cross section selecting unit selects at least one additional trace cross section from among a plurality of automatic trace cross sections in which the correction amount is a predetermined value or more.

  In a preferred embodiment, the additional cross section selecting unit selects a plurality of additional trace cross sections at regular intervals from a plurality of automatic trace cross sections in which the correction amount is a predetermined value or more.

  In a preferred embodiment, the additional section selection unit calculates, for each automatic trace section, contour intelligibility from the contour detection rate in the correction process, and selects at least one additional trace section based on the intelligibility. It is characterized by.

  In a preferred embodiment, the additional cross section selecting unit selects at least one additional trace cross section from a plurality of automatic trace cross sections in which the clarity is a predetermined value or more.

  In a preferred embodiment, the additional section selection unit selects a plurality of additional trace sections at regular intervals from among a plurality of automatic trace sections whose clarity is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

  In a preferred embodiment, a difference value between interpolated trace lines of adjacent automatic trace sections is calculated, and the at least one additional trace section is calculated from a section in the data space including a portion where the difference value is a predetermined value or more. It is characterized by selecting.

  In a preferred embodiment, a plurality of trace sections are set in the data space, the contour of the object is detected in the trace section for each trace section, and the contour ambiguity is determined from the detection rate. The number of cross sections for tracing, which are calculated and determined in advance in descending order of the ambiguity, is set as the manual trace cross section.

  According to the present invention, an apparatus suitable for both the burden on the user and the accuracy regarding the trace line is provided.

1 is a diagram illustrating an overall configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that is preferable in the practice of the present invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the setting of the reference | standard cross section with respect to volume data. It is a figure for demonstrating the setting of a reference cross-section row | line | column. It is a figure for demonstrating an automatic trace process. It is a figure which shows the internal structure of a structure | tissue extraction part. It is a figure which shows the reference cross-section row | line set in the volume data. It is a figure for demonstrating the correction amount of an interpolation trace line. It is a figure for demonstrating the selection process of the additional cross section based on the correction amount. It is a figure for demonstrating the clarity of the outline of an object structure | tissue.

  One of the preferred specific examples of the ultrasonic data processing apparatus according to the present invention is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus suitable for implementing the present invention. This ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is used in the medical field, and particularly has a function of extracting a target tissue in a living body and calculating its volume. Examples of the target tissue include placenta, malignant tumor, gallbladder, thyroid and the like.

  In FIG. 1, a 3D probe 10 is an ultrasonic transducer that is used, for example, in contact with a body surface or inserted into a body cavity. In this embodiment, the 3D probe 10 has a 2D array transducer. The 2D array transducer is composed of a plurality of vibration elements aligned in the first direction and the second direction. An ultrasonic beam is formed by the 2D array transducer, and the ultrasonic beam is two-dimensionally scanned. As a result, a three-dimensional echo data capturing space is formed as a three-dimensional space. Specifically, the three-dimensional space is configured as an aggregate of a plurality of scanning planes, and each scanning plane is configured by one-dimensional scanning with an ultrasonic beam. It is also possible to form a three-dimensional space similar to the above by mechanically scanning the 1D array transducer instead of the 2D array transducer.

  The transmission unit 12 functions as a transmission beam former. The transmitter 12 supplies a plurality of transmission signals to the 2D array transducer with a predetermined delay relationship. As a result, a transmission beam is formed. The reflected wave from the living body is received by the 2D array transducer, and a plurality of reception signals are output from the 2D array transducer to the receiving unit 14. The receiving unit 14 performs a phasing addition process on the plurality of reception signals, and thereby outputs a reception signal (beam data) after the phasing addition. Predetermined signal processing is performed on the received signal, for example, detection, logarithmic conversion processing, and the like are performed, and beam data that is the received signal after signal processing is stored in the 3D data memory 16.

  The 3D data memory 16 has a three-dimensional storage space corresponding to a three-dimensional space that is a transmission / reception space in a living body. When writing to or reading from the 3D data memory 16, coordinate conversion is performed on each data. In the present embodiment, when writing to the 3D data memory 16, coordinate conversion from the transmission / reception coordinate system to the storage space coordinate system is executed. This constitutes volume data as will be described later. Volume data is an aggregate of a plurality of frame data (slice data) corresponding to a plurality of scanning planes, and each frame data is composed of a plurality of beam data. Each beam data consists of a plurality of echo data arranged in the depth direction. Incidentally, each configuration after the 3D data memory 16 can be configured as dedicated hardware or can be realized as a software function. For example, each configuration after the 3D data memory 16 may be realized in a computer.

  The three-dimensional image forming unit 18 executes image processing based on, for example, a volume rendering method based on the volume data stored in the 3D data memory 16, thereby forming a three-dimensional ultrasonic image. The image data is sent to the display processing unit 26. The arbitrary tomographic image forming unit 20 forms a tomographic image corresponding to an arbitrary cross section in the three-dimensional space set by the user. In that case, a data array corresponding to an arbitrary cross section in the 3D data memory 16 is read, and a B-mode image as an arbitrary tomographic image is formed based on the data array. The image data is sent to the display processing unit 26.

  The tissue extraction unit 22 extracts a target tissue (target tissue data) existing in a three-dimensional space or volume data by a tracing process detailed in Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-142519). is there. In this case, manual trace processing and interpolation processing are used together, and automatic correction processing for each processing result is used. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the tissue extraction unit 22 executes processing suitable for both the burden on the user and the accuracy regarding the trace line. The processing in the tissue extraction unit 22 will be described in detail later. The extracted target tissue data is sent to the display processing unit 26, used for displaying an image of the target tissue, and also sent to the volume calculation unit 24.

  The volume calculation unit 24 is a module that calculates the volume of the target tissue by a volume calculation method such as a disk summation method. That is, since the tissue extraction unit 22 forms a plurality of trace line sequences as a closed loop over the entire target tissue, the volume value of the target tissue is approximately calculated based on the trace lines. In that case, the distance between each closed loop, that is, between each cross section is also used. The calculated volume value data is sent to the display processing unit 26. An Average Rotation method or the like may be used as the volume calculation method.

  Each module such as the three-dimensional image forming unit 18, the arbitrary tomographic image forming unit 20, and the tissue extracting unit 22 functions according to the operation mode selected by the user, and the display processing unit 26 corresponds to each mode. Data to be input. The display processing unit 26 performs processing such as image synthesis processing and coloring processing on the input data, and outputs the resulting data to the display unit 28. The display unit 28 displays a three-dimensional ultrasonic image, an arbitrary tomographic image, a three-dimensional image of the extracted tissue, a volume value, and the like according to the selected operation mode. Incidentally, it is also possible to synthesize and display a 3D image of the entire 3D space and a 3D image of the target tissue.

  The control unit 30 controls the operation of each component shown in FIG. 1, and controls the operations of the tissue extraction process and the volume calculation described above, particularly based on parameters set by the user by the input unit 32. . In addition, the control unit 30 is responsible for controlling data writing to the 3D data memory 16. The input unit 32 is configured by an operation panel having a keyboard, a trackball, and the like. The control unit 30 is configured by a CPU, an operation program, and the like. A single CPU may execute 3D image processing, arbitrary tomographic image formation processing, tissue extraction processing, and volume calculation.

  Next, the target tissue extraction processing in the present embodiment will be specifically described. However, for the configuration (part) already shown in FIG. 1, the reference numerals in FIG. 1 are used in the following description. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus in FIG. 1 executes the tracing process described in Patent Document 1. The trace processing is as described in detail in Patent Document 1, and the outline thereof will be described below.

  First, data is collected three-dimensionally using the 3D probe 10 and volume data is constructed in the 3D data memory 16. Then, while displaying an arbitrary tomographic image obtained from the volume data on the display unit 28, the position of the cross section is appropriately adjusted according to a user operation, for example, and the reference cross section is set.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining setting of a reference cross section for volume data. In this setting, it is desirable to position the reference cross section 46 so that, for example, this cross section is maximized so that the entire target tissue 42 appears as a cross section. However, as will be described later, since a reference cross-section row as a cross-section set is set, it is sufficient that the reference cross-section 46 is set so that such a reference cross-section row covers the entire target tissue 42.

  When the reference cross section 46 is set, a tomographic image corresponding to the reference cross section 46, that is, a tomographic image including a tomographic image of the target tissue 42, is displayed on the tomographic image. Is set by Further, a reference line 54 is set as a straight line connecting these two points. When the reference line 54 is set, a reference section row is set for the volume data 44 corresponding to the three-dimensional space.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the setting of the reference section row. The reference cross section row 56 is configured as a plurality of cross sections orthogonal to the reference line (reference numeral 54 in FIG. 2). That is, it corresponds to a plurality of cross-sections arranged at equal intervals or non-uniform intervals from one point used for setting the reference line to the other point. Here, the reference section row 56 includes at least one manual tracing reference section 58 and a plurality of automatic tracing reference sections 60. The reference number 58 for manual tracing is formed in a predetermined number, and the number is n. For example, the value of n is determined within a range of about 1 to 10. The reference cross section 58 for manual tracing corresponds to a representative cross section, and manual tracing is performed only on the representative cross section, so that the burden on the user can be greatly reduced. On the other hand, automatic tracing is executed by interpolation processing for each reference section 60 for automatic tracing.

  At the time of manual tracing, n pieces of tomographic images corresponding to at least one (n pieces) of reference cross sections 58 for manual tracing are displayed on the display unit 28. In this case, the tomographic images may be displayed one by one, or a plurality of tomographic images may be displayed side by side. Then, manual trace processing is executed for each tomographic image. That is, the user forms a trace line corresponding to the contour of the target tissue in each tomographic image using the input unit 32 while observing the image.

  When the manual trace line is formed, automatic correction processing of the manual trace line detailed in Patent Document 1 is executed for each manual trace reference section 58. That is, edge detection processing is performed on the periphery of each point on the manual trace line, and processing for shifting the point to a position on the edge is performed on the point where the edge is detected. However, if no edge is detected, the manual trace result is stored as it is. Thus, when the correction process is executed for each manual trace line, the automatic trace process is executed for the plurality of automatic trace reference sections 60.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the automatic trace processing. In the automatic trace processing, a plurality of complex trace lines 68, which are a plurality of manual trace lines after correction processing, formed on a plurality of reference cross sections 58 for manual tracing are used as a reference, and interpolation processing is performed based on them. Thus, the trace surface 70 is configured as a plurality of closed loops connected in a planar shape. In this case, it is not necessary to define a complete three-dimensional curved surface, but an interpolation process is executed so that an interpolation trace line (automatic trace line) can be defined at least for each reference section 60 for automatic tracing. Here, when only one manual reference cross section 58 is set on the reference line, the above-described interpolation processing is executed between the end points of the target tissue. Even when a plurality of manual tracing reference cross sections 58 are set, the interpolation processing described above is executed between the end points in the same manner as described above for the cross section closest to the end points.

  Further, an automatic correction process of the interpolation trace line (automatic trace line) detailed in Patent Document 1 is executed for each automatic trace reference section 60. That is, edge detection processing is performed on the periphery of each point on the interpolation trace line, and processing for shifting the point to a position on the edge is performed on the point where the edge is detected. However, if no edge is detected, the automatic trace result is stored as it is.

  In this way, as shown in FIG. 4, the trace surface 70 enveloping along the form of the target tissue is formed, and the target tissue can be extracted three-dimensionally. Then, the extracted three-dimensional image of the target tissue is displayed, and the volume value of the three-dimensionally extracted target tissue is calculated and the volume value is displayed.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, processing suitable for both the burden on the user and the accuracy regarding the trace line is also executed. Thereby, for example, the accuracy with respect to the trace line can be improved while reducing the burden on the user. The process will be described.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the tissue extraction unit. In order to implement the tissue extraction process described above and the process described in detail below, the tissue extraction unit 22 includes a trace section setting unit 222, a manual trace line formation unit 224, an interpolation trace line formation unit 226, and a trace line correction unit 228. An additional cross-section selection unit 220 is provided. Regarding the configuration (part) shown in FIG. 5, processing in the tissue extraction unit 22 will be described using the reference numerals in FIG. 5.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a reference cross-section row set in the volume data. The trace section setting unit 222 sets at least one manual tracing reference section 58 and a plurality of automatic tracing reference sections 60 for the target tissue 42 in the volume data (see FIG. 3).

  Then, the manual trace line forming unit 224 forms a manual trace line (manual trace line) corresponding to the contour of the target tissue in each manual trace reference cross section 58 according to a user operation. Further, the trace line correction unit 228 corrects the manual trace line by the automatic correction process of the trace line detailed in Patent Document 1.

  Further, the interpolation trace line forming unit 226 forms an interpolation trace line (automatic trace line) for a plurality of reference sections 60 for automatic tracing by interpolation processing using manual trace lines (see FIG. 4). Also, the interpolation trace line is corrected by the trace line correction unit 228.

  In this way, a trace surface (reference numeral 70 in FIG. 4) wrapped around the shape of the target tissue 42 is formed, and the target tissue 42 can be extracted three-dimensionally. In order to increase the accuracy of the extraction, a key section used for the interpolation process is added in the present embodiment.

  That is, in the first interpolation process, only the manual trace reference section 58 shown in FIG. 6 is used as a key section, and interpolation trace lines are added to the plurality of automatic trace reference sections 60 by the interpolation process using manual trace lines. Are formed, and the interpolated trace line is corrected by the trace line correcting unit 228.

  The additional section selection unit 220 selects an additional section to be added to the key section from the plurality of reference sections for automatic tracing 60 by evaluating the correction process for the interpolation trace line of each reference section 60 for automatic tracing. In the selection, the correction amount of the interpolation trace line in the correction process is calculated as a feature quantity indicating the effectiveness of the correction process.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the correction amount of the interpolation trace line. In FIG. 7, the interpolated trace line 62 formed in one automatic trace reference cross section 60 is indicated by a solid line. The trace line automatic correction process detailed in Patent Document 1 is executed for the interpolated trace line 62. That is, edge detection processing is performed on the periphery of each point on the interpolation trace line 62, and for the point where the edge is detected, the point is shifted to a position on the edge, while the edge is not detected. In this case, the result of the original interpolation trace line 62 is stored as it is. In this way, the edge detection process is executed for all the points on the interpolation trace line 62, and as a result, the corrected interpolation trace line 64 indicated by a one-dot chain line in FIG. 7 is obtained.

  The additional cross-section selection unit 220 calculates an integrated value of the movement amount for all points on the interpolation trace line 62 as the correction amount of the interpolation trace line 62 in the correction process. Thereby, the area difference between the original interpolation trace line 62 and the corrected interpolation trace line 64 is calculated. For example, the total value of the areas S1, S2, and S3 shown in FIG. 7 is the correction amount. The additional cross section selection unit 220 calculates a correction amount for each of the plurality of automatic trace reference cross sections 60, and selects an additional cross section to be a key cross section based on the correction amount.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining an additional section selection process based on the correction amount. The horizontal axis of FIG. 8 is the arrangement direction of the reference cross-section rows, and the position of the manual trace reference cross-section 58 is indicated by a solid line on the horizontal axis. Each section is a section sandwiched between two manual tracing reference cross sections 58 adjacent to each other. A plurality of broken lines extending in the vertical axis direction in each section indicate a plurality of reference sections for automatic tracing.

  The vertical axis in FIG. 8 indicates the correction amount of the interpolation trace line, and the length in the vertical axis direction of each broken line corresponding to each automatic trace reference section is the magnitude of the correction amount of the automatic trace reference section. Is shown. Although only sections A and B are shown in FIG. 8, there are sections C and D, for example, as shown in FIG. 6 according to the number of manual trace reference cross sections 58.

  The additional section selection unit 220 selects a characteristic automatic tracing reference section based on the correction amount. For example, at least one additional cross section is selected from the automatic trace reference cross sections (broken lines) having a correction amount exceeding the preset threshold Th shown in FIG. For example, for each of the sections A and B, the cross section M having the maximum correction amount in the section is selected. Further, for example, the cross section S and the cross section E positioned at both ends of the section row section where the correction amount exceeds the threshold Th may be selected. Of course, the cross section M, the cross section S, and the cross section E may all be selected. Further, a plurality of cross sections may be selected at equal intervals in a section from the cross section S to the cross section E where the correction amount exceeds the threshold Th.

  When the additional cross section is selected by the additional cross section selection unit 220, the additional cross section is added to the key cross section. Then, the interpolation trace line forming unit 226 re-executes the interpolation process. In this second interpolation process, an additional cross section is added to the reference cross section 58 for manual tracing that has been used from the beginning as a key cross section. For example, in addition to the manual tracing reference section 58 shown in FIG. 8, a section M selected from the automatic tracing reference section 58 is used as the key section.

  The interpolation trace line forming unit 226 includes a manual trace line after the correction process in the manual trace reference section 58 and an interpolation trace line after the correction process in the automatic trace reference section (for example, the cross section M) selected as the additional section. Are used as basic trace lines, and the second interpolation processing is executed using these basic trace lines. This creates a new interpolated trace line in the remaining automatic trace reference section not selected as an additional section. The correction process is executed again by the trace line correction unit 228 for this new interpolation trace line.

  The reference section for automatic tracing selected as the additional section is a section having a relatively large correction amount. That is, the interpolation trace line obtained by the first interpolation process is a cross-section that has been subjected to a relatively large correction process so as to approach the true boundary of the target tissue. Since the additional cross section with a relatively large correction amount is added to the key cross section, the interpolation process for the second interpolation process forms an interpolated trace line closer to the true boundary of the target tissue than the first interpolation process. As a result, the accuracy of boundary detection in the correction process for the interpolated trace line is increased, and as a result, the accuracy of the trace line finally obtained is improved. In addition, since it is not necessary to add a manual trace line, it is possible to avoid placing an additional burden on the user.

  Note that the correction process executed again after the second interpolation process may be evaluated to select an additional section, and the third interpolation process may be executed using the key section to which the additional section is added. Further, for the third and subsequent times, for example, the selection of additional sections, interpolation processing, and correction processing may be repeated a predetermined number of times. Further, the additional cross-section selection unit 220 may evaluate the effectiveness of the correction processing using the clarity of the contour of the target tissue instead of or in addition to the correction amount of the interpolation trace line described above.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the clarity of the outline of the target tissue. FIG. 9 shows an interpolated trace line 62 formed in one automatic trace reference section 60. The trace line automatic correction process detailed in Patent Document 1 is executed for the interpolated trace line 62.

  In the correction process, a detection window R having a predetermined length is set for each point on the interpolation trace line 62, for example, along a direction orthogonal to the interpolation trace line 62. Then, for each point on the interpolation trace line 62, an edge search is performed using the detection window R as a search range, and for the point where the edge is detected, the point is shifted to a position on the edge, If no edge is detected, the result of the original interpolated trace line 62 is stored as it is.

  Therefore, the additional cross-section selection unit 220 calculates the clarity of the contour from the edge (contour) detection rate in the correction process. For example, “intelligibility = EP / TP” is calculated based on the total number of points TP on the interpolation trace line 62 and the number of points EP at which edges are detected. The additional cross-section selection unit 220 calculates the clarity for each of the plurality of reference traces 60 for automatic tracing, and selects an additional cross-section that becomes a key cross-section based on the clarity.

  In the selection based on the clarity, the same process as the selection process described with reference to FIG. 8 is preferable. In the selection of clarity, the vertical axis in FIG. 8 is read as clarity, and the length of each broken line in the vertical axis direction corresponding to each automatic trace reference section is read as the magnitude of clarity of the automatic trace reference section.

  For example, the additional cross section selection unit 220 selects at least one additional cross section from among the reference cross sections for automatic tracing (dashed lines) having a degree of clarity exceeding a preset threshold value Th. For example, for each of sections A and B, the cross section M having the maximum clarity in the section is selected. Further, for example, the cross section S and the cross section E positioned at both ends of the section row section where the clarity exceeds the threshold Th may be selected. Of course, the cross section M, the cross section S, and the cross section E may all be selected. Further, a plurality of cross sections may be selected at equal intervals in the section from the cross section S to the cross section E where the clarity exceeds the threshold Th.

  When the additional cross section is selected based on the clarity by the additional cross section selection unit 220, the additional cross section is added to the key cross section as in the case of selection using the correction amount. Then, the interpolation trace line forming unit 226 re-executes the interpolation process. Of course, as in the case of selection using the correction amount, for example, selection of an additional section, interpolation processing, and correction processing may be repeated a predetermined number of times.

  Further, the selection based on the correction amount and the selection based on the clarity may be used in combination. For example, the cross-section with the maximum correction amount and the cross-section with the maximum clarity may be selected as the additional cross-section, or the additional cross-section is selected from the cross-sections with both the correction amount and the clarity being a predetermined amount or more. It may be.

  When the clarity is large over a relatively wide range, for example, in the section A of FIG. 8, the ratio of the reference section for automatic tracing having the clarity that exceeds the threshold Th is set in advance. When the threshold value is exceeded, it may be determined that the boundary of the target tissue has been sufficiently detected at that time, and the selection of the additional cross section in the section A may be terminated.

  Also, the difference value between the interpolated trace lines of the adjacent reference sections for automatic tracing is calculated, and a section row section including a portion where the difference value is equal to or larger than a predetermined value is set. You may make it select an additional cross section from. Of course, the section row section may be set based on the cross-correlation value between the interpolated trace lines so as to include a portion where the cross-correlation value is small.

  Furthermore, in the setting of the reference cross section 58 for manual tracing described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 6, the manual tracing reference cross section 58 is set at a location where the boundary is relatively unclear, and the determination of the boundary (contour) is performed. Sometimes it is better to leave it to the user. Therefore, after the reference section row 56 is set as shown in FIG. 3, for each reference section 56, the contour of the target tissue is detected in the section, and the ambiguity of the contour is calculated from the detection rate. For example, a predetermined number of reference cross sections 56 in order of increasing ambiguity may be used as the manual trace reference cross section 58. In detecting the boundary, for example, a three-dimensional region of interest is set so as to surround the target tissue in the volume data, and within each reference cross section 56, within the three-dimensional region of interest (within the cross section of the three-dimensional region of interest). What is necessary is just to search the boundary of object organization. That is, for example, the boundary of the target tissue is moved from a point on the boundary of the three-dimensional region of interest reflected two-dimensionally in each reference section 56 toward the center of the three-dimensional region of interest reflected two-dimensionally. Just search.

  As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described, embodiment mentioned above is only a mere illustration in all the points, and does not limit the scope of the present invention. The present invention includes various modifications without departing from the essence thereof.

  22 Tissue extraction unit, 220 Additional cross section selection unit, 222 Trace cross section setting unit, 224 Manual trace line formation unit, 226 Interpolation trace line formation unit, 228 Trace line correction unit

Claims (9)

In the ultrasonic data processing apparatus for forming a trace line corresponding to the contour of the object based on the ultrasonic data obtained from the three-dimensional space including the object,
A trace section setting unit for setting at least one manual trace section and a plurality of automatic trace sections in a data space composed of three-dimensionally arranged ultrasonic data;
A manual trace line forming section for forming a manual trace line in each manual trace section according to a user operation;
An interpolation trace line forming unit that forms an interpolation trace line in each automatic trace section by an interpolation process using the manual trace line as a basic trace line;
For each automatic trace section, a trace line correction unit that corrects an interpolation trace line based on the contour of the object detected in the automatic trace section;
An additional cross-section selecting unit that selects at least one additional trace cross-section from a plurality of automatic trace cross-sections based on a feature amount indicating the effectiveness of the correction processing;
Have
Adding the corrected interpolated trace line of each additional trace section to the base trace line and re-executing the interpolating process;
An ultrasonic data processing apparatus. The ultrasonic data processing apparatus according to claim 1,
The additional cross section selection unit calculates the correction amount of the interpolation trace line in the correction process for each automatic trace cross section, and selects at least one additional trace cross section based on the correction amount.
An ultrasonic data processing apparatus. The ultrasonic data processing apparatus according to claim 2,
The additional cross section selection unit selects at least one additional trace cross section from among a plurality of automatic trace cross sections in which the correction amount is a predetermined value or more.
An ultrasonic data processing apparatus. The ultrasonic data processing apparatus according to claim 3,
The additional cross section selection unit selects a plurality of additional trace cross sections at regular intervals from a plurality of automatic trace cross sections in which the correction amount is a predetermined value or more.
An ultrasonic data processing apparatus. In the ultrasonic data processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The additional cross section selection unit calculates, for each automatic trace cross section, contour intelligibility from the detection rate of the contour in the correction process, and selects at least one additional trace cross section based on the intelligibility.
An ultrasonic data processing apparatus. The ultrasonic data processing apparatus according to claim 5,
The additional cross section selection unit selects at least one additional trace cross section from a plurality of automatic trace cross sections whose clarity is a predetermined value or more.
An ultrasonic data processing apparatus. The ultrasonic data processing apparatus according to claim 6,
The additional section selection unit selects a plurality of additional trace sections at regular intervals from among a plurality of automatic trace sections whose clarity is a predetermined value or more.
An ultrasonic data processing apparatus. In the ultrasonic data processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
Calculating a difference value between interpolated trace lines of adjacent automatic trace sections, and selecting the at least one additional trace section from a section in the data space including a portion where the difference value is a predetermined value or more;
An ultrasonic data processing apparatus. In the ultrasonic data processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 8,
A plurality of trace sections are set in the data space, the contour of the object is detected in the trace section for each trace section, and the contour ambiguity is calculated from the detection rate. A predetermined number of trace sections in order of increasing clarity are the manual trace sections.
An ultrasonic data processing apparatus.

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