Ultrasonic image diagnosing apparatus for displaying three-dimensional image

Claim 1

An ultrasonic image diagnosing apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic probe means for emitting an ultrasonic wave to scan a living body in a three-dimensional manner and receiving an ultrasonic wave reflected by the living body to derive echo data of a three-dimensional region; a three-dimensional data storing means for storing said echo data of said three-dimensional region derived from the ultrasonic probe means; a cross sectional position setting means for setting a desired cross sectional position within the echo data to determine a display range of the echo data of said three-dimensional region; a cross sectional position storing means for storing data representing said cross sectional position set by said cross sectional position setting means; a surface position extracting means for extracting surface position data representing a surface of an object under inspection from the echo data of said three-dimensional region; a surface position data storing means for storing said surface position data of said surface; a three-dimensional image data producing means for producing three-dimensional image data by converting the echo data within the three-dimensional display range at the cross sectional position set by said cross sectional position setting means into two-dimensional perspective image data seen from a given direction; a shade adding means for adding shade to said surface of the object, indicated by said surface position data, to derive surface image data; a surface composing means for producing composed three-dimensional image data by composing said three-dimensional image data formed by said three-dimensional image data producing means and the surface image data having said shade added thereto, at a position corresponding to said surface represented by said surface position data; and a display means for receiving said composed three-dimensional image data to display a three-dimensional image.

Claim 4

An apparatus according to 2, wherein said scanning means comprises a first driving means for driving the ultrasonic vibrating element such that the first cross section is scanned by the ultrasonic wave, and a second driving means for driving the ultrasonic element such that the second cross section is scanned by the ultrasonic wave.

Claim 5

An apparatus according to 2, wherein said scanning means comprises a first driving means for driving the ultrasonic vibrating element such that the first cross section is scanned by the ultrasonic wave, and a second driving means for driving the ultrasonic element such that the second cross section is scanned by the ultrasonic wave.

Claim 8

An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said three-dimensional image data producing means comprises a shading means for applying a shading to a cross section in the displayed three-dimensional image.

Claim 13

An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said cross sectional position setting means is constructed such that a cross sectional position is set for cross sectional images except for a lowermost cross sectional image within the echo data so that the three-dimensional display image displayed on the displaying means contains the lowermost cross sectional image.

Claim 17

An apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 5, further comprising a first image data producing means for processing the echo data obtained for a time period during which said first cross section is scanned by the ultrasonic vibrating element prior to picking-up the echo data of said three-dimensional region and producing first image data representing a first ultrasonic tomographic image to be displayed by said display means, a second cross sectional position setting means for setting a desired cross sectional position in said displayed first ultrasonic tomographic image, and a second image data producing means for processing the echo data of said three-dimensional region during the three-dimensional scan by scanning said first and second cross sections and producing second image data representing a second ultrasonic tomographic image at the cross sectional position set by said second cross sectional position setting means.

Claim 20

An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said surface position extracting means comprises a means for performing a threshold treatment for the echo data of said three-dimensional region by using a threshold value, a means for setting said threshold value to be used in said threshold treatment, a means for denoting a given area in a cross section of a wall forming a cavity of the living body on a given tomographic image at a given cross sectional position comprising said three-dimensional image data, and a means for comparing the cross sectional image on which the wall of said cavity is denoted and a cross sectional image adjacent to said cross sectional image and judging portions in these cross sectional images which are common to these images as a wall of the cavity.

Claim 24

An apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 5, further comprising an image pick-up start signal generating means for generating an image pick-up start signal for initiating pick-up of echo data of said three-dimensional region; and a control means for controlling said first and second driving means such that prior to generation of said image pick-up start signal, only said first scan is performed by said first driving means on said first cross section at a position which is within a scanning range on said second cross section but which is not at either end of said second cross section, and after generation of said image pick-up start signal, the echo data of said three-dimensional region is stored.