PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a blood vessel imaging system, program and method capable of greatly reducing a burden of a subject when measuring the rigidity of a physiological blood pressure fluctuation region at rest and measuring and comparing dynamic deformation behavior in a state of high pulsation speed (a loading test).SOLUTION: This blood vessel imaging system 11 is provided with a carriage 20 for moving an ultrasonic probe 21, which is disposed with a plurality of ultrasonic transducers in column and line directions, in the column direction. A computer 12 repeatedly controls the carriage 20 to intermittently move in the column direction by a distance shorter than the line pitch of the ultrasonic transducers for every plurality of prescribed periods, and processes original image information acquired by the ultrasonic transducers into three-dimensional images and four dimensional images based on two-dimensional image converted into two-dimensional image by an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus 16, the position information, and the like. The computer 12 generates images of a maximum diameter, a minimum diameter and a difference between the maximum diameter and the minimum diameter for every measurement sites in the carotid artery based on the image processing result.COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT【課題】安静時の生理的血圧変動領域の剛性の計測や、拍動速度が高い状態(負荷試験)での動的変形挙動を計測し比較する際、被験者の負担を大幅に軽減できる血管画像化システム、血管画像化プログラム及び血管画像化方法を提供する。【解決手段】血管画像化システム11は列と行方向に複数の超音波振動子が配置された超音波プローブ21を行方向に移動するキャリッジ20を備える。コンピュータ12は複数の所定周期毎にキャリッジ20を行方向に沿って超音波振動子の行ピッチよりも短い距離で間欠移動制御を繰り返し、超音波振動子により得られた原画像情報が超音波診断装置16にて2次元化された2次元画像と位置情報等に基づいて3次元画像化、4次元画像化処理する。コンピュータ12は画像処理結果に基づいて頸動脈における測定部位毎の最大径、最小径、及び最大径と最小径の差異の画像を生成する。【選択図】図1
