To display an ultrasonic image of C-mode without having a moving mechanism or moving control part for ultrasonic probe by flatly scanning the inner part of a subject by use of an ultrasonic probe, and generating the linear image of a subject part having a fixed depth.
An operator holds an ultrasonic probe, moves it in Y-direction in C-mode, sets a fixed depth z1 from an input device, and collects the B-mode image data of the fixed depth z1 part in scanning planes P(y1, t1), P(y2, t2),... A blood vessel a runs in the depth z1 in Y-positions of y1-y5. A plurality of linear images generated from the obtained B-mode image data are arranged in order of time position of each linear image to provide a C-mode ultrasonic image C(z1) to the fixed depth z1 as shown in Fig. b. The X-axial (horizontal) direction of the image C(z1) corresponds to the X-direction of each scanning plane, and the Y-axial (vertical) direction corresponds to the time position (t) of each scanning plane P.
TAKEUCHI YASUTO
INOUE SHIGERU
