Yoichi Ogasawara

Three-dimensional ultrasound diagnosis based on contrast echo technique

In ultrasound diagnosis, a contrast echo technique on three-dimensional scanning is used with a contrast agent injected into an object. Before injecting the contrast agent and under the injection thereof, a blood vessel is continuously and securely targeted and depicted in displayed images. To realize this, a diagnostic ultrasound apparatus has means for acquiring an echo signal by scanning a three-dimensional region of an object with an ultrasound beam, means for producing three-dimensional image data based on the echo signal, means for displaying the three-dimensional image data, means for specifying, for example, from the echo signal, a timing at which injecting an ultrasound contrast agent into a region to be scanned of the object is started, and means for switching over at the specified timing display states of the three-dimensional image data to be displayed by the displaying means. By way of example, the switchovers are carried out such that data produced by projecting the three-dimensional image data on a minimum intensity projection technique are displayed before injecting the contrast agent, while data produced by projecting them on a maximum intensity projection technique are displayed after the start of injecting the contrast agent.