PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress the occurrence of an artifact that appears near a footrest in an ultrasonic bone evaluation device for evaluating bones in a living body by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from the living body placed on the footrest.SOLUTION: Ultrasonic waves are transmitted from one of vibrator units 16A, 16B arranged on both sides of the living body, and the ultrasonic waves that have passed through the living body are received to obtain received signals. The received signals are stored in a storage part 76. The vibrator units are moved by a moving mechanism 52 to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves repeatedly within a measuring area to obtain received signals of a plurality of measuring points. A maximum value of the received signals of each measuring point is computed (78a), and based on the maximum value, a bone region is defined (78b). Since the maximum value is hardly influenced by ultrasonic waves propagated through a surrounding structure such as the footrest, the occurrence of the artifact can be suppressed, and the bone region can be accurately defined to improve evaluation accuracy.COPYRIGHT: (C)2012,JPO&INPIT【課題】足置き台上に置かれた生体に対し、超音波を送受して生体内の骨の評価を行う超音波骨評価装置において、足置き台近傍に現れるアーチファクトの発生を抑制する。【解決手段】生体を挟んで配置される振動子ユニット16A,16Bの一方から超音波を送信し、生体を通過した超音波を受信して受信信号を得る。受信信号を格納部76に格納する。移動機構52により振動子ユニットを移動させ、測定領域内で繰り返し超音波の送受信を行い、複数の測定点の受信信号を得る。各測定点の受信信号の最大値を算出し(78a)に基づき、骨領域を画定する(78b)。最大値は、足置き台等周囲の構造物を伝播する超音波の影響を受けにくく、アーチファクトの発生が抑制できる。骨領域を正確に画定でき評価の精度が向上する。【選択図】図15
