IP Library Granted Patent US 12,446,852
Granted Patent B2
US 12,446,852 · App. 17/655,438 · Granted Oct 21, 2025

Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, medical image analytic apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing medical image analysis program

Inventors: Yasuhiko Abe (Otawara, JP); Koichiro Kurita (Nasushiobara, JP)
Assignee: CANON MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION
A61B8/0883A61B8/485A61B8/5223
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,446,852
App. No.
17/655,438
Granted
Oct 21, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes processing circuitry and a display. The processing circuitry is configured to concurrently obtain a plurality of cardiac function indexes for at least two or more cardiac chambers including a left ventricle and a right ventricle among cardiac chambers appearing on an apical 4-chamber moving image of a subject during one or more heartbeats, based on boundary positions of the cardiac chambers appearing on the apical 4-chamber moving image. The display displays at least one or more of the plurality of cardiac function indexes.

Claims (40)

1. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, comprising:

an ultrasound probe configured to transmit an ultrasonic wave to a subject and receive the ultrasonic wave reflected;

processing circuitry configured to obtain information indicative of a plurality of cardiac function indexes for at least two or more of a left ventricle, a right ventricle, a left atrium, and a right atrium from an apical 4-chamber moving image of the subject for one or more heartbeats acquired based on a signal from the ultrasound probe; and

a display that displays the information indicative of the plurality of cardiac function indexes,

wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

automatically detect, from the apical 4-chamber moving image, a boundary group representing boundary positions of the cardiac chambers in at least one or more cardiac cycle phases,

track the boundary group in the apical 4-chamber moving image in a remaining cardiac cycle phase different from a cardiac cycle phase in which the boundary group has been automatically detected; and

obtain the boundary positions of the cardiac chambers in an interval of at least the one or more heartbeats by tracking the boundary group.

2. An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprising:

processing circuitry configured to concurrently obtain a plurality of cardiac function indexes for at least two or more cardiac chambers including a left ventricle and a right ventricle among cardiac chambers appearing on an apical 4-chamber moving image of a subject during one or more heartbeats, based on boundary positions of the cardiac chambers appearing on the apical 4-chamber moving image; and

a display that displays at least one or more of the plurality of cardiac function indexes, wherein

the cardiac function indexes for the left ventricle, a left atrium, and a right atrium include cavity volume and fractional volume change, and

the cardiac function indexes for the right ventricle include cavity area and fractional area change.

3. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the cardiac function indexes for the left ventricle, the left atrium, and the right atrium among the cardiac chambers include cardiac wall global longitudinal strain (GLS), and

the cardiac function indexes for the right ventricle among the cardiac chambers include free wall GLS.

4. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the cardiac function indexes for the left atrium include a left atrium volume index, and

the cardiac function indexes for the right ventricle include a tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion.

5. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein an output of each cardiac function index of the plurality of cardiac function indexes is in the form of a graph representing a time-variable curve of the cardiac function index, and

the display displays a graph output in two or more cardiac cycles when the cardiac chambers to be displayed include a ventricle and an atrium.

6. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to obtain at least one of a peak-time difference and a peak-value difference in index values representing cardiac functions of the cardiac chambers in a same heartbeat, as a relevance index indicating a cardiac function index relevant to the cardiac chambers.

7. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to output a mean value of the relevance index in two or more heartbeats based on the boundary positions in the apical 4-chamber moving image captured in real time.

8. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 2 , wherein

the fractional volume changes for the left ventricle, the left atrium, and the right atrium include an ejection fraction change for the left ventricle and an emptying fraction change for the left atrium and the right atrium; and

the cardiac function indexes for the right ventricle include the fractional area change.

9. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 2 , wherein

the cardiac function indexes for the left ventricle, the left atrium, and the right atrium include a global longitudinal strain (GLS) of an entire cardiac wall; and

the cardiac function indexes for the right ventricle include a GLS of a free wall.

10. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 2 , wherein

the processing circuitry is further configured to obtain respective boundary positions of the at least two or more cardiac chambers in a plurality of two-dimensional ultrasound images corresponding to two or more cardiac phases included in the apical 4-chamber moving image; and

the display displays, in juxtaposition, information representing the cardiac function indexes for the at least two or more cardiac chambers, and the plurality of two-dimensional ultrasound images on which information representing the boundary positions of the at least two or more cardiac chambers are superimposed at the boundary positions.

11. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the display displays, in a same display format, for each of the at least two or more cardiac chambers, information representing the boundary positions of the cardiac chamber and information representing the cardiac function indexes.

12. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

obtain respective boundary positions of the at least two or more cardiac chambers of the subject in two two-dimensional ultrasound images corresponding to an end-systolic phase and an end-diastolic phase; and

obtain cardiac function indexes for each of the at least two or more cardiac chambers based on the two two-dimensional ultrasound images.

13. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the apparatus further comprises an input interface that receives a user operation while the subject undergoes ultrasound scanning; and

the processing circuitry is further configured to, in accordance with the user operation,

obtain respective boundary positions of the at least two or more cardiac chambers in the two two-dimensional ultrasound images; and

obtain the cardiac function indexes for each of the at least two or more cardiac chambers.

14. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of two-dimensional ultrasound images are images based on B-mode data obtained by two-dimensional scanning.

15. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the respective boundary positions of the at least two or more cardiac chambers in the plurality of two-dimensional ultrasound images are obtained by using a trained model.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 18, 2022
From: ABE, YASUHIKO; KURITA, KOICHIRO
To: CANON MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 059308/0494 →