The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for determining blood pressure of a subject. To automatically trigger calibration the apparatus comprises a sensor signal input configured to obtain an arterial pulse wave sensor signal of the subject, a feature extraction unit configured to extract multiple features from the obtained arterial pulse wave sensor signal, an estimation unit configured to determine multiple blood pressure estimation values for individual extracted features and/or groups of extracted features and to determine the subject's blood pressure from said multiple blood pressure estimation values, a calibration unit configured to calibrate the estimation unit based on blood pressure reference measurements, and a calibration trigger unit configured to trigger calibration by the calibration unit if the multiple blood pressure estimation values diverge more than a divergence limit.

In an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and an operation method of the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of the invention, a control circuit performs polarization processing on a plurality of ultrasound transducers in a non-diagnosis period, during which transmission of ultrasound waves and reception of reflected waves for performing ultrasound diagnosis are not performed, in a case where the cumulative driving time of the plurality of ultrasound transducers for performing the ultrasound diagnosis becomes equal to or longer than a specified time. A transmission circuit generates a first transmission signal having a driving voltage for performing ultrasound diagnosis using a pulse generation circuit in the case of performing the ultrasound diagnosis, and generates a second transmission signal having a polarization voltage for performing polarization processing using the same pulse generation circuit as in the case of generating the first transmission signal in the case of performing the polarization processing.

A method and system enable to-be-processed medical image data and its corresponding noise characteristic information to be normalized to resemble noise characteristic information of training data used to train at least one neural network for at least one ultrasound data acquisition mode. After normalizing, this processed medical image data is input into the trained neural network for producing output data used for generating cleaner images. Noise characteristic information can be used directly in training a neural network, generating a trained neural network that can handle medical image data with various noise characteristics.

An ultrasound imaging system includes a processor programmed to identify the type of tissue being imaged and to confirm that one or more system settings and/or the energy of ultrasound imaging signals delivered is set appropriately for such tissue. In one embodiment, an image obtained with the ultrasound imaging system is analyzed to determine if the tissue is ophthalmic (eye) tissue. If so, the system parameter settings and/or the transmit power of the signals produced by the ultrasound system are adjusted or maintained at a level that is appropriate for imaging such tissue.

An electronic endoscope system includes: an electronic endoscope including, at a distal end portion, an image sensor that captures an image of a living tissue, and an ultrasound probe that applies ultrasonic waves to the living tissue to obtain an echo signal; a captured image processor including an image processing unit that processes an imaging signal output from the image sensor and generates a captured image; and an ultrasonic image processor including an ultrasonic image processing unit that processes the echo signal output from the ultrasound probe and generates an ultrasonic image, a noise detection unit that detects a periodic noise component included in the echo signal and generated at a level equal to or higher than a preset threshold level, and a noise suppression unit that performs processing of suppressing the detected noise component.

Methods and systems are provided for improving image quality of ultrasound images by automatically determining one or more image quality parameters via a plurality of separate image quality models. In one example, a method for an ultrasound system includes determining a plurality of image quality parameters of an ultrasound image acquired with the ultrasound system, each image quality parameter determined based on output from a separate image quality model, and outputting feedback to a user of the ultrasound system based on the plurality of image quality parameters.

An ultrasonic imaging system including an array transducer that includes a plurality of elements each performing at least one of emission or reception of ultrasonic waves, at least some of the plurality of elements being disposed so as to face each other. The ultrasonic imaging system performs malfunction inspection including specifying one emitting element among emitting elements that emit ultrasonic waves and a group of receiving elements that are at least some of the plurality of elements and that receive transmitted waves emitted from the emitting element and transmitted through an imaging region; collecting measurement data of the transmitted waves via the group of receiving elements while switching the emitting element; calculating transfer characteristic values from the measurement data; and detecting a malfunctioning element among the plurality of elements on the basis of the transfer characteristic values.

In accordance with a method for characterization of particles in a fluid-filled hollow structure, an ultrasound signal with a frequency spectrum, which exhibits a local maximum at a variable measurement frequency, is emitted in the direction of a part area of the hollow structure and reflected components are detected. The measurement frequency is tuned in a predetermined measurement interval, and depending on the detected reflected components, a spectral response curve is acquired as a function of the measurement frequency. Depending on the response curve, at least one characteristic property for a part of the particles located in the part area of the hollow structure is determined. The characteristic property includes a measure for an adhesion of the particles of the part of the particles located in the part area of the hollow structure.

An ultrasound transducer unit including a plurality of ultrasound transducers transmits and receives ultrasound waves to and from an inside of a subject. In a case where a checking operation unit is operated, a controller controls a driving voltage supply unit such that a driving voltage is supplied with all of the plurality of ultrasound transducers as driving target transducers. In a case where the checking operation unit is operated, a depolarization determination unit calculates, for each ultrasound transducer, a reception sensitivity in a case where an ultrasound wave is received by driving all of the plurality of ultrasound transducers as the driving target transducers, and determines whether or not a depolarization determination value calculated from the reception sensitivity of each ultrasound transducer satisfies numerical conditions. If the numerical conditions are satisfied, a polarization voltage supply unit supplies a polarization voltage to each of the plurality of ultrasound transducers.

The present disclosure discloses an ultrasonic imaging method. The ultrasonic imaging method may include: obtaining emitting instructions for emitting a plurality of ultrasonic waves, gaining instructions, receiving instructions, and idle instructions relating to the plurality of ultrasonic waves, and storing the emitting instructions, the receiving instructions, the gaining instructions, and the idle instructions in a ring buffer; obtaining the emitting instructions from the ring buffer, and emitting the plurality of ultrasonic waves based on the emitting instructions; obtaining a gaining instruction and a receiving instruction corresponding to each emission of the plurality of ultrasonic waves from the ring buffer, and obtaining at least one enhanced echo signal based on the gaining instructions and the receiving instructions; and obtaining the idle instructions from the ring buffer, and processing the at least one enhanced echo signal based on the idle instructions to obtain a target ultrasonic image.