ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS, MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND METHOD
An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus of an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry acquires distribution of tissue properties within a subject. The processing circuitry changes distribution of temperature within the subject. The processing circuitry acquires temperature-change distribution within the subject with the distribution of temperature that has been changed. The processing circuitry generates a thermophysical properties distribution within the subject based on a plurality of distributions of tissue properties acquired in a plurality of states in which the distribution of temperature has been changed and the temperature-change distribution within the subject corresponding to the plurality of states.
1 . An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to:
acquire a tissue property distribution within a subject;
change a temperature distribution within the subject;
acquire a temperature-change distribution within the subject in which the temperature distribution has been changed; and
generate a thermophysical properties distribution within the subject based on a plurality of tissue property distributions acquired under a plurality of states in which the temperature distribution has been changed and the temperature-change distributions within the subject corresponding to the plurality of states.
2 . A medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to:
acquire a tissue property distribution within a subject;
acquire a temperature-change distribution within the subject in which a temperature distribution has been changed by a temperature controller that changes the temperature distribution within the subject; and
generate a thermophysical properties distribution within the subject based on a plurality of tissue property distributions acquired under a plurality of states in which the temperature distribution has been changed and the temperature-change distributions within the subject corresponding to the plurality of states.
3 . The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate a thermophysical properties distribution using the temperature-change distribution at each position of the subject.
4 . The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to acquire sound speed distribution indicating sound speed at each position within the subject.
5 . The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate a thermophysical properties distribution between a plurality of sound speed distributions.
6 . The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the tissue property within the subject is any one of sound speed, a computed tomography (CT) value, and a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) parameter.
7 . The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the temperature controller is configured to change the temperature distribution within the subject using any one of methods including a method of heating by ultrasonic acoustic energy, a method of heating by electromagnetic interference, a method of heating by optical interference, and a method of heating by heat transfer from a heat source.
8 . The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to acquire the temperature-change distribution within the subject through numerical analysis based on electromagnetic field analysis or numerical analysis based on sound field analysis.
9 . The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to acquire the temperature-change distribution for each condition in the temperature controller.
10 . The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising memory circuitry storing a plurality of temperature-change distributions corresponding to characteristics of each subject, wherein
the processing circuitry is configured to acquire the temperature-change distribution corresponding to the subject whose tissue property distribution has been acquired from the memory circuitry.
11 . The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
accept input operations for information regarding the subject; and
acquire the temperature-change distribution within the subject using information regarding the subject input via the input operations.
12 . The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to display at least one of the thermophysical properties distribution, the tissue property distribution, and the temperature-change distribution.
13 . A method comprising:
acquiring a tissue property distribution within a subject;
acquiring a temperature-change distribution within the subject in which a temperature distribution has been changed by a temperature controller that changes the temperature distribution within the subject; and
generating a thermophysical properties distribution within the subject based on a plurality of distributions of tissue properties acquired in a plurality of states in which the temperature distribution has been changed and the temperature-change distribution within the subject corresponding to the plurality of states.