JPH11137550A - Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus which can provide a more convenient and effective information when a contrast echo method which is performed by administering an ultrasonic contrast medium to a subject is performed. SOLUTION: An FEI control circuit 13 switches and controls transmitting condition in an ultrasonic transmitting part 2. I.e., switching and controlling between an ultrasonic transmitting condition suitable for making existence of life continue and an ultrasonic transmitting condition suitable for destroying an ultrasonic contrast medium are performed. During transmission of a monitor, an image obtd. by flash transmission just before and being the first frame is displayed as a static image till the next flash transmission in a display region of the image by the flash transmission. Observation of the image can be effectively performed thereby during diagnosis.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the observation of blood flow dynamics in blood vessels, perfusion detection at the level of organ parenchyma by detecting perfusion, and the administration of ultrasonic contrast agents to a subject. The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having various image processing functions performed for the purpose of performing quantitative evaluation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are various medical applications of ultrasonic waves, and the mainstream is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for obtaining a tomographic image of a soft tissue of a living body using an ultrasonic pulse reflection method. This ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus displays a tomographic image of a tissue by a non-invasive examination method, such as an X-ray diagnostic apparatus, an X-ray computed tomography (CT) apparatus, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, and a nuclear medicine diagnostic apparatus. Compared to other diagnostic devices, it is capable of real-time display, is small and inexpensive, has high safety without exposure to radiation such as X-rays, and is capable of blood flow imaging by ultrasonic Doppler method. Have. For this reason, ultrasonic diagnosis is widely performed in the heart, abdomen, mammary gland, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, and the like. Such an ultrasonic diagnosis, in particular, can be obtained by real-time display of the state of the pulsation of the heart and the movement of the fetus by a simple operation of simply applying the ultrasonic probe to the body surface,
In addition, since the safety is high, the test can be performed repeatedly, and the test can be easily performed by moving the diagnostic device to the bedside.

In the examination of, for example, the heart and abdominal organs, the evaluation of blood flow dynamics by an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus in which an ultrasonic contrast agent is injected from a vein is being performed.
Since the injection of a contrast medium from a vein is less invasive, diagnosis based on this method for evaluating blood flow dynamics is becoming widespread. Many contrast agents use microbubbles as a reflection source, and the higher the injection amount and concentration, the greater the contrast effect. However, due to the nature of the bubbles, there is a problem that the ultrasonic irradiation shortens the contrast effect time.

[0004] In recent years, a persistent / pressure-resistant contrast agent has been developed, but there is a concern that maintaining the contrast agent in the subject for a long period of time may cause an increase in invasiveness. In consideration of the site of the subject in the clinic, since the contrast agent is supplied to the region of interest by the blood flow one after another, even if the bubble disappears by one ultrasonic irradiation, a new bubble is generated at the time of the next transmission. If the bubbles exist in the same region of interest, the contrast effect could be maintained.

However, taking into account the fact that ultrasonic transmission / reception is normally performed several thousand times per second and the existence of the blood flow dynamics of an organ having a low blood flow velocity or a relatively small blood vessel, the contrast of these diagnostic images is high. It can be sufficiently expected that bubbles disappear one after another before confirming the brightness enhancement by the agent, and the contrast effect is instantaneously attenuated.

[0006] The most basic purpose of diagnosis using a contrast agent is to know the presence or absence of blood flow at a diagnostic site by checking for the presence or absence of brightness enhancement by the contrast agent. A more advanced diagnosis is to observe the temporal change of the spatial distribution of the contrast agent at the diagnostic site from the spread of the luminance change and the degree of the luminance enhancement, and from the injection of the contrast agent to the region of interest (ROI). And the time it takes to reach
Temporal change of echo luminance due to contrast agent in OI (TI
C: Time Intensity Curve) or finding the maximum luminance.

The diagnosis by the contrast echo method as described above becomes more effective by a method called harmonic imaging. Harmonic imaging is an imaging technique that separates only non-linear behavior caused by ultrasonic excitation of microbubbles and detects this. Since a living organ is less likely to cause nonlinear behavior, the contrast agent can be observed with a good contrast ratio.

[0008] In addition, as described above, the phenomenon in which microbubbles disappear due to the irradiation of ultrasonic waves is solved by flash echo imaging (hereinafter referred to as "FEI"), transient response imaging (Trangient Response I).
maging) has been reported to improve luminance enhancement. Regarding flash echo imaging, see “67-95 Examination of Flash Echo Imaging (1)”, Naohisa Kamiyama, Yoshitaka Mine, et al.
7th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Sonographers, June 1996 ". In principle, this imaging technique uses intermittent transmission of one frame per second instead of conventional continuous transmission (scanning) of several tens of frames per second so that minute bubbles that have been densely packed without breaking In this method, a high echo signal is obtained. The invention according to this method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 7-89443 (filed on Apr. 14, 1995) filed by the same applicant as the present invention.
Date).

[0009]

By the way, in observation by continuous irradiation such as the harmonic imaging method, it is desirable to reduce the transmission sound pressure as much as possible in consideration of the influence of collapse of the contrast medium bubbles. This is the same in the normal B mode,
In any case, when the transmission sound pressure is lowered, the S / S
Since the N ratio is lowered, for example, it is possible to increase the contrast effect of the vascular system, but in many cases, it is not possible to detect the minute blood flow of the organ parenchyma.

[0010] On the other hand, in the flash echo imaging method, a minute blood flow in the organ parenchyma can be detected instantaneously, but a transmission stop time for filling the tissue with the contrast agent is required, and the real-time property is impaired.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and automatically switches between a transmission mode using a low sound pressure and a transmission mode using a high sound pressure to make use of the advantages of both. The present invention has an object to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus including an image storage unit and an image storage unit, which can provide more convenient and effective information when an operator performs contrast echo.

[0012]

In order to solve the above problems and achieve the object, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention is configured as follows. (1) An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that generates an ultrasonic diagnostic image by a contrast echo method performed by administering an ultrasonic contrast agent to a subject. Transmitting and receiving means for transmitting ultrasonic waves under the first transmission condition suitable for sustaining, or the second transmission condition suitable for disintegrating the ultrasonic contrast agent, and receiving a reflected signal from the subject; First storage means for storing a first diagnostic image obtained by transmitting an ultrasonic wave based on the first transmission condition, and a second diagnosis obtained by transmitting an ultrasonic wave based on the second transmission condition Second storage means for storing an image.

According to such a configuration, an image group based on the first transmission condition (monitor transmission) suitable for maintaining the existence life of the ultrasonic contrast agent, and suitable for disintegrating the ultrasonic contrast agent. The image group according to the second transmission condition (flash transmission) can be separately stored in the first storage unit and the second storage unit. Therefore, the following advantages can be obtained when the operator calls up and reproduces an image from the first and second storage means (image memory). That is, when displaying an image, the
You can display the image by flash transmission,
Both can be easily identified. Further, according to an instruction from the operator, it is possible to display only an image group by, for example, flash transmission (or monitor transmission). The group of images transmitted by flash is useful for detecting and diagnosing micro blood flow in tissue with high sensitivity, as the main purpose of flash echo imaging. On the other hand, the image group transmitted by the monitor is
For example, in the case of a heart diagnosis, playing back a moving image is useful for diagnosing dynamics. (2) The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present invention is an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that generates an ultrasonic diagnostic image by a contrast echo method performed by administering an ultrasonic contrast agent to a subject. Transmitting and receiving means for transmitting ultrasonic waves under the first transmission condition suitable for sustaining, or the second transmission condition suitable for disintegrating the ultrasonic contrast agent, and receiving a reflected signal from the subject; Dividing a first diagnostic image obtained by transmitting an ultrasonic wave based on the first transmission condition and a second diagnostic image obtained by transmitting an ultrasonic wave based on the second transmission condition into one screen, and simultaneously Display means for displaying.

According to such a configuration, an image group under the first transmission condition (monitor transmission) suitable for maintaining the existence life of the ultrasonic contrast agent, and suitable for disintegrating the ultrasonic contrast agent. An image group according to the second transmission condition (flash transmission) can be displayed simultaneously by dividing one screen by the display means.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention relates to a region of interest (RO) for observing a blood flow state according to the degree of contrast by administering a contrast agent.
I) Although it is applicable to all cases, in the present embodiment, a case will be described in which blood flow dynamics are grasped to identify an abnormal site from the degree of contrast of a contrast agent flowing into the liver parenchyma or heart muscle.

<Adaptive Transmission Power Control Method> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present embodiment includes an ultrasonic probe 1 that transmits and receives an ultrasonic signal to and from a subject.
And an apparatus main body 20 for driving the ultrasonic probe 1 and processing a received signal from the ultrasonic probe 1, and an operation connected to the apparatus main body 20 and capable of inputting instruction information from an operator to the apparatus main body 20 And a panel 9.
The operation panel 9 has a trackball 10A and a keyboard 10B for setting the ROI connected or installed.

The apparatus main body 20 includes an ultrasonic transmitting unit 2, an ultrasonic receiving unit 3, a receiver unit 4, a B-mode DSC unit 5, a memory synthesizing unit 6, a display unit 7, an image memory 8, an FEI control circuit 13, and a memory. A control circuit 14 is provided. Also,
An ECG (electrocardiograph) 11 is provided in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of the present embodiment.
Are connected, and the apparatus main body 20 includes the heartbeat detecting unit 12.

The ultrasonic transmission unit 2 includes a delay circuit and a pulser, and generates a pulsed ultrasonic wave to perform scanning. Usually, the time interval of this scan is constant pulse repetition frequency (PRF).
equency). Further, the ultrasonic transmission unit 2 is also controlled by an FEI control circuit 13 which is one of the main parts of the present embodiment. As a result, switching between high sound pressure transmission and low sound pressure transmission is performed. Details of the function of the FEI control circuit 13 will be described later.

The reflected wave reflected by the discontinuous surface of the acoustic impedance in the subject is received by the ultrasonic probe 1. The echo signal output from the probe 1 for each channel is captured by the ultrasonic receiver 3. Here, the echo signal is amplified by a preamplifier for each channel, given a delay time required for determining the reception directivity by a reception delay circuit, and added by an adder. By this addition, a reflection component from a direction corresponding to the reception directivity is emphasized. As described above, the transmission directivity and the reception directivity are given to form an overall ultrasonic beam in transmission and reception.

Next, the configuration after the receiver section 4 will be described. The receiver unit 4 includes a logarithmic amplifier (not shown), an envelope detection circuit, and an analog / digital converter (A / A
D converter). When the harmonic imaging method is applied, a band-pass filter or the like is added to the receiver unit 4. Thereby, the fundamental wave component of the transmission frequency is removed, and only the signal containing the harmonic component can be passed.

The output from the receiver unit 4 is a D signal for B mode.
An SC (digital scan converter) unit 5 converts the raster signal sequence of the ultrasonic scan into a raster signal sequence of a video format, and sends the converted signal to a memory synthesizing unit 6.
The memory synthesizing unit 6 arranges or superimposes information such as an image and setting parameters, and outputs this to the display unit 7 as a video signal. Thus, a tomographic image representing the shape of the subject tissue is displayed.

The image memory 8 includes a B-mode DSC 5
(One or both of a raster signal sequence of an ultrasonic scan and a raster signal sequence of a video format). This information can be called and used by the operator after the diagnosis, for example. In this case, the information can be output to the display unit 7 via the DSC unit 5 and the memory synthesis unit 6.

The ECG 11 obtains an electrocardiographic waveform mainly by attaching the ECG 11 to a body surface of a subject. The heartbeat detecting unit 12 sends the obtained electrocardiographic waveform to the memory synthesizing unit 6 for display on the display unit 7 together with the ultrasonic image. Further, it outputs an electrocardiographic waveform to the FEI control circuit 13 as a trigger signal for obtaining an image of the heart acquired in synchronization with the electrocardiographic waveform, a so-called electrocardiographic synchronized image.

<Function of Transmission Condition Control Unit> Next, the FEI control circuit 13 and the memory control circuit 1 according to the main part of the present invention.
4 will be described in detail.

First, the FEI control circuit 13 controls the switching of the transmission condition in the ultrasonic transmission unit 2 as described above. That is, "a first transmission condition for transmitting an ultrasonic wave suitable for maintaining the existence life of the ultrasonic contrast agent",
Switching control is performed with "second transmission condition for transmitting ultrasonic waves suitable for disintegrating the ultrasonic contrast agent". Hereinafter, the transmission according to the first transmission condition is referred to as “monitor transmission”, and the transmission according to the second transmission condition is referred to as “flash transmission”.

The conditions necessary for alternately switching between monitor transmission and flash transmission are sent to the FEI control circuit 13 by the operator using the operation panel 9. Here, the most basic information is a transmission time interval of each of monitor transmission and flash transmission. This specific example will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing transmission timings of monitor transmission and flash transmission. The values of the time interval T-moni for monitor transmission and the number N-flash of transmission frames for flash transmission shown in FIG.

Here, the flash transmission is a method of disintegrating microbubbles to enhance the brightness, and if this is performed at very short intervals, the effect will be reduced. Will collapse. Based on this, the time interval of monitor transmission is set. That is, a unit such as 1, 2,.
... [Every heartbeat] with reference to the trigger of G11. The flash transmission time interval is specified in units such as 1, 2,... [Number of frames]. Of course, it is not the number of frames, but
It may be specified by a time such as 05 seconds.

In this embodiment, T-moni is set to 3 seconds, and N-fl
Suppose you specify two ashes. In accordance with this instruction, the ultrasonic transmission unit 2 performs monitor transmission for only 3 seconds, and the received signal is collected via the ultrasonic reception unit 3. Thereafter, the ultrasonic transmission unit 2 performs flash transmission, and two frames of received signals are collected via the ultrasonic reception unit 3. Then, the operation returns to monitor transmission again, and the above operation is repeated (see FIG. 2). Note that the switching of the transmission conditions is automatically performed by the FEI control circuit 13, but may be manually performed by an operator pressing a button or the like. The above operation is described in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application No. 7-89443 (filed on April 14, 1995).

Although two types of transmission conditions are switched, three or more types of transmission conditions may be switched for the purpose of efficiently obtaining a flash signal. For example, a transmission condition of "stop" for a relatively short time may be provided between the time when the monitor transmission is switched to the flash transmission. If a weak contrast agent is used, which can be broken down by the monitor transmission, the contrast agent will flow into the tissue of interest without cracking during transmission stop, and the flash signal will be enhanced in the subsequent flash transmission. be able to.

If the time period during which the transmission is stopped is increased, the intensity of the flash signal is naturally increased. However, if the stop time is long, the original real-time property of the monitor scan is impaired, so that a fraction of a second to a few seconds is considered appropriate.

The memory control circuit 14 receives from the FEI control circuit 13 information on whether the current transmission is a monitor transmission or a flash transmission, and sends the information to the B-mode DSC 5.
The following control is performed on the memory synthesizing unit 6.

First, control of the B mode DSC unit 5 by the memory control circuit 14 will be described. The memory control circuit 14 sends a control signal to the B-mode DSC unit 5 to identify whether the image currently being recorded in the image memory 8 is due to monitor transmission or flash transmission. Thus, the image group transmitted by the monitor and the image group transmitted by the flash transmission are separated and stored in the image memory 8. Therefore, the following advantages can be obtained when the operator calls up and reproduces an image from the image memory 8. That is, when displaying an image on the display unit 7, it is possible to display whether the image is transmitted by monitor transmission or an image transmitted by flash transmission, and it is easy to identify the two. Also,
According to an instruction from the operator, it is possible to display only a group of images by, for example, flash transmission (or monitor transmission). The group of images transmitted by flash is useful for detecting and diagnosing micro blood flow in tissue with high sensitivity, as the main purpose of flash echo imaging. On the other hand, for example, in the case of a heart diagnosis, a group of images transmitted by the monitor is useful for diagnosing dynamics by playing back a moving image.

Since the image transmitted by the monitor is obtained by continuously transmitting the image, the total irradiation time of the ultrasonic wave also increases, and the number of images inevitably increases. The image transmitted by the monitor may be used for a specific purpose other than the diagnosis, for example, for positioning for obtaining a flash echo. Therefore, it may not be necessary to record all the images transmitted by the monitor in the image memory 8. on the other hand,
In flash transmission, it is necessary to confirm by reproducing the image memory 8 in order to capture an instant flash image.

Based on the above, the following modifications are conceivable. (Modification 1) The storage area of the image memory 8 is divided in advance into a monitor area and a flash area (either physical or software), and the storage locations are allocated under the control of the memory control circuit 14. As a result, as shown in FIG. 3, the flash image group having a small number is not overwritten by the monitor image group. (Modification 2) The image memory 8 is previously dedicated to flash, and the memory control unit 14 controls so as not to record an image by monitor transmission.

Next, control of the memory synthesizing unit 6 by the memory control circuit 14 will be described. First, the reason for performing two or more flash transmissions (described above) will be described. According to the definition of flash transmission, it is a method of capturing an echo when the contrast agent is instantaneously destroyed. When flash transmission is performed, a high-luminance image can be obtained in the first frame, but it is conceivable that the luminance due to the contrast agent has disappeared in the second and subsequent frames. The images after the second frame are used as follows. That is,
By comparing (at least one of) the second and subsequent frames with the first frame, it is used for confirming the disappearance site. This is important in that frames (images) under the same transmission conditions are compared. Note that it is not possible to compare an image transmitted by flash transmission with an image transmitted by monitor transmission. Further, a lost portion can be extracted by creating an image of a luminance difference between the second frame and subsequent frames (at least one of them) and the first frame.

As described above, it is important to transmit a plurality of flashes and to record a plurality of images obtained by the flash transmission in the image memory 8. However, by displaying the first frame (image) having the highest luminance during the observation of the diagnostic site, the stained site can be more clearly known during the examination. Therefore, the memory control unit 1
4 notifies the memory synthesizing unit 6 whether or not the frame is the first frame of the flash transmission. In response, the display unit 7 displays only the first frame and does not display the second and subsequent frames. (See FIG. 4).

Although such display control is effective in single-screen display, it is more effective in two-screen display (dual display) described below. FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of a two-screen display (DUAL display) on the display unit 7. As shown in the figure, by displaying the image transmitted by the monitor on one side and the image transmitted by the flash on the other, the operator can easily observe the moving image in real time on the monitor image, while easily observing the image by the flash transmission It is possible to do.

Several modifications of the switching between the transmission conditions and the image display will be described with reference to FIG. Also in this example, it is assumed that two flash transmissions are performed at regular intervals.

FIG. 6A shows an example in which an image for monitor transmission and an image for flash transmission are separately displayed on each screen. Until the next image is obtained, the previous image is held on the screen. Note that the flash screen (screen 2) may display all images transmitted by flash transmission. However, as described above, it is possible to selectively display only the first image immediately after each flash transmission. Desirably,
This example shows this case. Note that the image memory stores only the flash image.

FIG. 6B shows a monitor screen (screen 1).
An example is shown in which all images sequentially obtained by the apparatus, including images transmitted by flash, are displayed as they are. Since the actual flash image is several frames (several tenths of a second) in a few seconds, even if the flash image is instantaneously mixed with the monitor image, there is almost no problem in observing the dynamic state. On the other hand,
The control of switching the display according to the identification of the transmission condition only needs to be performed for the flash screen, and the monitor screen only needs to display a continuous image. Therefore, there is an advantage that signal control is relatively simple.

FIG. 6 shows a divided form in which the screen is divided into two equal parts. The image transmitted by the monitor and the image transmitted by the flash are displayed on the display screens having different sizes as shown in FIG. For example, it may be displayed in various divided forms, such as displayed on a screen.

By the way, in this embodiment, the transmission sound pressure is changed when switching between monitor transmission and flash transmission. This can be realized by controlling specific parameters such as the transmission drive voltage, the drive frequency, the wave number, the waveform, or the number of transmission drive elements (the number of apertures) of the ultrasonic probe 1. The above parameters may be any parameters as long as the sound field sound pressure at the diagnostic site or the fragility of the contrast agent bubbles can be changed as a result.

Further, the receiving condition may be changed between the monitor transmission and the flash transmission. For example, in the above-described dual display example, harmonic imaging occurs due to disappearance of bubbles during flash transmission, so that harmonic imaging is performed, and normal B-mode imaging is performed during monitor transmission. This makes it possible to compensate for the deterioration of penetration due to low sound pressure, and it is easy to observe the tissue shape, so that the positioning can be properly performed. More specifically, the reception conditions are switched as follows. That is, the FEI control circuit 13 sends a signal for distinguishing between monitor transmission and flash transmission to the receiver unit 4. Based on this signal, the receiver unit 4 performs processing related to harmonic imaging during flash transmission and processing related to B-mode imaging during monitor transmission to the received signal. More specifically, the receiver unit 4 changes the reception frequency or the reception band as the processing condition of the received signal with the switching of the transmission condition.

<Addition of Time Information> The image group recorded in the image memory 8 according to the present invention is composed of images collected at indefinite intervals, as is clear from the timing chart of FIG. In addition, if the flash transmission is manually performed several times, the interval becomes indefinite even if T-flash = 1. For this reason, it is not possible to know at what time the image is for each image.

Then, the memory control unit 14 stores the time information and the information about the
The information is sent to the mode DSC unit 5, and the information is added to the image and recorded in the image memory 8. Alternatively, a table for recording time information may be separately provided and written in association with an image.

The time information is useful for retrieving an image recorded in the image memory 8 and creating a luminance change curve. A more specific application example is the first flash image.
Take out only the frame and create a brightness change curve. Based on such time information, it is possible to create a luminance change curve in consideration of the time axis for flash images collected at irregular intervals (or manually).

Therefore, in the image diagnosis of the contrast echo method, in particular, the flash echo imaging method in which the ultrasonic contrast agent is administered to the subject, the diagnostic ability can be improved by delineating the minute blood flow more clearly, and the accurate blood can be obtained. Provision of flow information can be realized. The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be implemented with various modifications.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention, a transmission control system and a display unit that automatically switch between a transmission mode using low sound pressure and a transmission mode using high sound pressure to take advantage of both modes. And an image storage unit, so that an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus capable of providing more convenient and effective information when performing a contrast echo method performed by administering an ultrasound contrast agent to a subject Can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing timings of monitor transmission and flash transmission according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a control example of the image memory according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing image display timing according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically showing an example of a two-screen display on the display unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a modification of the image display according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of a screen division mode on the display unit according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Ultrasonic probe 2 ... Ultrasonic transmission part 3 ... Ultrasonic reception part 4 ... Receiver part 5 ... B-mode DSC part 6 ... Memory synthesizing part 7 ... Display part 8 ... Image memory 9 ... Operation panel 10A ... Trackball 10B ... Keyboard 11 ECG 12 Heartbeat detector 14 Memory control circuit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for generating an ultrasonic diagnostic image by a contrast echo method performed by administering an ultrasonic contrast agent to a subject, wherein the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is suitable for maintaining the existence life of the ultrasonic contrast agent. While transmitting ultrasound under the first transmission condition or the second transmission condition suitable for disintegrating the ultrasonic contrast agent,
Transmitting and receiving means for receiving a reflected signal from the subject; first storing means for storing a first diagnostic image obtained by transmitting an ultrasonic wave based on the first transmitting condition; And a second storage unit for storing a second diagnostic image obtained by transmission of an ultrasonic wave based on the ultrasonic diagnostic device. 2. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for generating an ultrasonic diagnostic image by a contrast echo method performed by administering an ultrasonic contrast agent to a subject, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus being suitable for maintaining the existence life of the ultrasonic contrast agent While transmitting ultrasound under the first transmission condition or the second transmission condition suitable for disintegrating the ultrasonic contrast agent,
Transmitting and receiving means for receiving a reflected signal from the subject; a first diagnostic image obtained by transmitting ultrasonic waves based on the first transmission condition; and a second diagnostic image obtained by transmitting ultrasonic waves based on the second transmitting condition. 2. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, comprising: display means for dividing one screen into two diagnostic images and displaying the divided images simultaneously. 3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: continuously collecting a second diagnostic image based on the second transmission condition a plurality of times.
3. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a diagnostic image obtained first is displayed on the display unit under the transmission condition. 4. The transmitting and receiving means includes a drive voltage, a drive frequency, a drive waveform, a drive repetition frequency,
3. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first and second transmission conditions are switched by changing at least one of the number of drive apertures of the vibrator. 4. 5. The transmission / reception unit according to claim 1, wherein the transmission / reception unit switches the first and second transmission conditions by changing a transmission sound field condition or a scanning density wave number. Ultrasound diagnostic equipment. 6. The transmission / reception unit according to claim 4, wherein the first and second transmission conditions are switched to change a reception frequency or a reception band as a reception signal processing condition. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to any one of the above. 7. A system further comprising means for obtaining time information on the time at which the first and second diagnostic images were obtained, and storing the time information in association with the first and second diagnostic images. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 8. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the time information is used for measuring a temporal change in luminance based on the second diagnostic image.