An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a hardware processor that generates a first B mode image and a second B mode image on the basis of a first reception signal and a second reception signal whose beam width in the slice direction is narrower than the first reception signal, displays a display image on a display section, determines whether the end of the puncture needle in the display image is the actual needle point, and presents the determination result. The hardware processor presents the determination result on the basis of the first puncture needle image included in the first B mode image and the second puncture needle image included in the second B mode image.

For tissue property estimation with ultrasound, multiple different types of measurements are performed by an ultrasound system, including scatter measurements and shear wave propagation measurements. The tissue property, such as liver fat fraction, is estimated using a combination of these different types of measurements.

In a photoacoustic image generation apparatus and an operation method of the photoacoustic image generation apparatus, all positions of an insert during puncture can be accurately grasped on an image after an examination. A photoacoustic image generation apparatus includes a photoacoustic image generation unit that generates a photoacoustic image based on a detection signal acquired by detecting a photoacoustic wave emitted from a tip portion of an insert inserted into a subject using acoustic wave detection means, and a control unit that causes a storage unit to store position information of the tip portion of a puncture needle on the photoacoustic image in response to a predetermined trigger during a step of collecting a cell of the subject at the tip portion of the puncture needle in cytology.

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus (1) includes a first vascular wall detection unit (10) that detects a vascular wall in a minor axis direction by analyzing a B-mode image including a minor axis image of a blood vessel, a first blood vessel diameter calculation unit (11) that calculates a first blood vessel diameter from the vascular wall in the minor axis direction, a second vascular wall detection unit (12) that detects a vascular wall in a major axis direction by analyzing the B-mode image including a major axis image of the blood vessel, a second blood vessel diameter calculation unit (13) that calculates a second blood vessel diameter from the vascular wall in the major axis direction, a blood flow velocity calculation unit (15) that calculates a blood flow velocity based on Doppler data in a Doppler gate set on the B-mode image, and a blood flow rate measurement unit (16) that measures a blood flow rate based on the vascular wall in the major axis direction or the minor axis direction and the blood flow velocity, in which in a case where the second blood vessel diameter is within a determined range with respect to the first blood vessel diameter, the blood flow rate is automatically measured.

A first synthesis unit generates a first synthetic image by applying a first weight distribution to a plurality of sub-images and then synthesizing the sub-images. A second synthesis unit generates a second synthetic image by applying a second weight distribution to the plurality of sub-images and then synthesizing the sub-images. A generation unit generates a display image based on the first synthetic image and the second synthetic image.

To uniformly extract a secondary flow based on quantitative calculation even in a complicated blood flow in a heart chamber or a blood vessel. There is provided a secondary flow detection device, including: a degree-of-swirl map calculation unit that obtains a velocity vector map calculated based on an echo signal reflected by an inspection target, calculates, as a value indicating a degree of a spatial change of a velocity vector, a degree of swirl based on the velocity vector map, and calculates, as a degree-of-swirl map, a spatial distribution of an iso-degree-of-swirl line obtained by connecting the degree of swirl of an equal value; a secondary flow candidate extraction unit that extracts, as a secondary flow candidate, an iso-degree-of-swirl line satisfying a predetermined condition among the iso-degree-of-swirl line indicated in the degree-of-swirl map; a feature amount calculation unit that calculates a feature amount of the velocity vector inside the secondary flow candidate; a secondary flow determination unit that determines whether the secondary flow candidate is a desired secondary flow based on the feature amount; and a secondary flow extraction unit that extracts and outputs the secondary flow determined by the secondary flow determination unit.

Ultrasound image devices, systems, and methods are provided. An ultrasound imaging system, comprising an intraluminal imaging device comprising a flexible elongate member configured to be positioned within a patient's body lumen and an ultrasound transducer array coupled to the flexible elongate member, the ultrasound transducer array configured to transmit ultrasound energy into the body lumen and to receive ultrasound echoes associated with the body lumen; and a processor circuit in communication with the intraluminal imaging device and configured to receive, from the ultrasound transducer array, first signal data corresponding to the received ultrasound echoes; transform the first signal data based on a first parameter associated with a reference tissue characterization data; characterize the transformed first signal data based on the reference tissue characterization data; generate a first image of the body lumen based on the characterization; and output, to a display in communication with the processor circuit, the first image.

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus including: an ultrasound probe; a processor configured to perform transmission of ultrasound beam from the ultrasound probe to a subject to acquire an ultrasound image; a camera configured to acquire a digital image of a state of the ultrasound probe being in contact with the subject; a touch panel including a display screen displaying the ultrasound image and the digital image; an interface to receive instruction to acquire the ultrasound image and/or the digital image from a user; and a memory configured to store the ultrasound image and the digital image, wherein the processor is further configured to: exclusively control between the acquisition of the ultrasound image and the acquisition of the digital image according to instruction received by the interface; and save the ultrasound image and the digital image of the same inspection in the memory in association with each other.

The position and orientation of an ultrasound probe is tracked in three dimensions to provide highly-accurate three-dimensional bone surface images that can be used for anatomical assessment and/or procedure guidance. The position and orientation of a therapy applicator can be tracked in three dimensions to provide feedback to align the projected path of the therapy applicator with a desired path for the therapy applicator or to provide feedback to align the potential therapy field of a therapy applicator with a target anatomical site. The three-dimensional bone surface images can be fit to a three-dimensional model of the anatomical site to provide or display additional information to the user to improve the accuracy of the anatomical assessment and/or procedure guidance.

Methods and systems are provided for color flow ultrasound imaging. In one embodiment, a method comprises acquiring color flow data, detecting, with a neural network, a flash artifact in the color flow data, adjusting an adaptive filter cutoff of a clutter filter based on a classification result of the neural network, filtering, with the clutter filter, the flash artifact from the color flow data, and displaying a color flow image generated from the filtered color flow data. In this way, strong flash artifacts caused by strong tissue movement or probe movement may be dynamically suppressed during color flow ultrasound imaging.