Ultrasonic tomographic image generating method, ultrasonic tomographic image generating apparatus, and program

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique for improving spatial resolution and contrast of an ultrasonic tomographic image as compared with a method based on correlation between echo signals. SOLUTION: Noise is estimated in an echo signal of an M channel output from an ultrasonic probe that receives echoes of ultrasonic waves emitted from M (natural number of 2 or more) ultrasonic transducers and outputs an echo signal. Then, an estimation step SA100 for calculating a weighting coefficient for emphasizing the echo from the reception focus according to the signal-to-noise ratio in the echo signal of the M channel and a beamformer representing an ultrasonic tomographic image are calculated in the estimation step SA100. And a generating step SA110 for generating an echo signal of the M channel by using the weighted coefficient. [Selection diagram] Figure 2