ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS

1 . An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprising:

an ultrasonic image generation section that generates an ultrasonic image based on a reception signal from an ultrasonic probe that transmits an ultrasonic wave to a subject and receives the ultrasonic wave from the subject;

a position information acquisition section that includes a position sensor mounted to the ultrasonic probe and acquires position information on a three-dimensional space of the ultrasonic probe;

an image acquisition section that obtains image data and acquires a reference image corresponding to the ultrasonic image;

a reference image forming section that identifies a to-be-displayed cross section orientation of acquired the reference image according to at least one of information related to an examination purpose for the subject and information related to a type of the ultrasonic probe, and forms a reference image which a cross section orientation is identified; and

a display section that displays a formed reference image by the reference image forming section and ultrasonic image formed by the ultrasonic image generation section.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the reference image forming section includes a storage section that stores data of the identified cross section orientation.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein

the reference image forming section updates the cross section orientation data stored in the storage section, when an orientation of a cross section of the formed reference image is changed by an operator.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the reference image forming section performs alignment between the ultrasonic image and the image data based on the position information and generates, from the image data, a two-dimensional reference image that corresponds to a scanning position of the ultrasonic probe and that is automatically adjusted in terms of the cross section orientation based on the cross section orientation data.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the reference image forming section identifies, as the to-be-displayed cross section orientation of the formed reference image, any one of “axial”, “sagittal”, and “coronal”.

6 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein

the reference image forming section further sets a rotation angle of the two-dimensional reference image according to the information of the examination region and information of the probe type and adjusts the rotation angle of the two-dimensional reference image based on the set rotation angle.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the reference image forming section identifies the to-be-displayed cross section orientation of the formed reference image according to an ultrasonic probe for body surface and an intracavity ultrasonic probe.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the reference image forming section identifies the to-be-displayed cross section orientation of the formed reference image according to the examination region, when different regions are examined with a single probe.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the reference image forming section makes the cross section orientation of the formed reference image coincide with an apical four-chamber cross section, when the examination region using the ultrasonic probe is a heart.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the image acquisition section acquires, as the image data, three-dimensional image data photographed by a medical image diagnosis apparatus other than the ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus.