Endoscope

• US 20050020878A1
• Filed: 07/31/2003
• Published: 01/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Akimoto, Shunya, Ohnishi, Junichi, Kobayashi, Eiichi
• Granted Patent: US 7,641,609 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/117
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00009 of image signals during a use of endoscope
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0005 combining images e.g. side-by-side, superimposed or tiled
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00147 Holding or positioning arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/042 characterised by a proximal camera, e.g. a CCD camera
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/2676 Bronchoscopes

Abstract

In an endoscope device 1 in accordance with the present invention, a navigation screen 51 is displayed. The navigation screen 51 includes: an endoscopic live image display area 52 in which a live image produced by a bronchoscope 2 is displayed; a VBS image display area 53 in which a VBS image is displayed; and a thumbnail VBS image area 54 in which images constructed by reducing VBS images that represent all branch points on a route are displayed as thumbnail VBS images representing branch points. Consequently, an endoscope can be reliably navigated to reach a target region using guide images that represent actual branch positions.

Claims

1. An endoscope device in accordance with the present invention comprising:

three-dimensional image constructing means for constructing a three-dimensional image of an intracorporeal lumen of a subject on the basis of image data acquired from a three-dimensional field of the subject;

an endoscope for imaging the intracorporeal lumen of the subject; and

navigation image constructing means for constructing a navigation image, which includes an endoscopic image that is produced by the endoscope and that represents the intracorporeal lumen of the subject, and the three-dimensional image, so that while presenting the course of the endoscope to be steered in order to insert the endoscope into the intracorporeal lumen of the subject, the endoscope device can help observe or treat the interior of the subject, wherein;

the navigation image constructing means constructs the navigation image having reduced images of three-dimensional images, which represent all branch points at which the intracorporeal lumen of the subject branches out, added thereto.

2. The endoscope device according to claim 1, wherein the navigation image constructing means comprises:

route designating means that designates and calculates a route, which starts with a point at which the endoscope is inserted and ends with a point at which the endoscope reaches a target region of the subject, so that the course of the endoscope to be steered in order to insert the endoscope can be presented; and

an image processing unit that constructs reduced images of three-dimensional images, which represent all the branch points on the determined route at which the intracorporeal lumen branches out, according to the result of calculation performed by the route designating means, and that constructs the navigation image having the reduced images added thereto.

3. The endoscopic imaging system according to claim 2, further comprising image display control means that displays the navigation image, which is constructed by the image processing unit included in the navigation image constructing means, on a monitor.

4. The endoscope device according to claim 2, wherein the navigation image constructed by the image processing unit includes the endoscopic image, the three-dimensional image, and the reduced images of three-dimensional images that represent all the branch points on the route determined by the route designating means at which the lumen branches out.

5. The endoscope device according to claim 2, wherein the route designating means can designate and calculate a plurality of routes that starts with the point at which the endoscope is inserted and ends with the point at which the endoscope reaches the target region.

6. The endoscope device according to claim 2, wherein the route designating means designates the route through a display screen image of the three-dimensional image that represents the intracorporeal lumen of the subject and that is constructed by the three-dimensional image constructing means.

7. The endoscope device according to claim 2, wherein:

the navigation image constructing means includes multi-screen reconstructed image constructing means that constructs a multi-screen reconstructed image, which represents the intracorporeal lumen of the subject, on the basis of the image data acquired from the three-dimensional field of the subject; and

the route designating means designates the route through a display screen image of the multi-screen reconstructed image constructed by the multi-screen reconstructed image constructing means.

8. The endoscope device according to claim 7, wherein:

the three-dimensional image is a virtual VBS image that represents the intracorporeal lumen of the subject and that is constructed based on CT image data which is the image data acquired from the three-dimensional field of the subject; and

the multi-screen reconstructed image is an MRT image that represents the intracorporeal lumen of the subject and that is constructed based on the CT image data.

9. The endoscope device according to claim 8, wherein the image processing unit constructs reduced images of three-dimensional images using the MRT image, which is constructed by the multi-screen reconstructed image constructing means, according to the result of calculation performed by the route designating means.

10. The endoscope device according to claim 8, wherein the three-dimensional image constructing means constructs successive VBS images, which represent regions along the route determined by the route designating unit, in units of a frame in synchronization with the endoscopic image.

11. The endoscope device according to claim 8, further comprising:

a fetching unit that fetches the CT image data;

a first storage unit in which the CT image data fetched by the fetching unit is stored; and

a second storage unit in which image data representing the VBS images is stored.

12. The endoscope device according to claim 3, further comprising degree-of-insertion calculating means for calculating a degree of insertion to which the endoscope is inserted, wherein:

the image display control means displays the endoscopic image, which is contained in the navigation image, according to the result of calculation of a degree of insertion performed by the degree-of-insertion calculating means.

13. The endoscope device according to claim 3, further comprising operational input means for use in giving an operational directive to the route designating means and image display control means.

14. The endoscope device according to claim 3, wherein the image display control means rotates the three-dimensional image contained in the navigation image displayed on a monitor, and displays it.

15. An endoscope device in accordance with the present invention, comprising:

three-dimensional image constructing means for constructing a three-dimensional image of an intracorporeal lumen of a subject on the basis of image data acquired from a three-dimensional field of the subject;

an endoscope that images the intracorporeal lumen of the subject;

first navigation image constructing means for constructing a navigation image that includes an endoscopic image, which is produced by the endoscope and represents the intracorporeal lumen of the subject, and the three-dimensional image;

route designating means for designating and calculating a route that starts with a point at which the endoscope is inserted and ends with a point at which the endoscope reaches a target region of the subject, and that is used to present the course of the endoscope to be steered in order to insert the endoscope;

second navigation image constructing means for constructing reduced images of three-dimensional images, which represent all branch points on the determined route at which the lumen branches out, according to the result of calculation performed by the route designating means, and for constructing the navigation image that has the reduced images added thereto; and

image display control means for displaying the navigation image, which is constructed by the second navigation image constructing means, on a monitor.

16. A navigation method implemented in an endoscope device in accordance with the present invention, comprising:

a three-dimensional image constructing procedure for constructing a three-dimensional image of an intracorporeal lumen of a subject on the basis of image data acquired from a three-dimensional field of the subject;

a first navigation image constructing procedure for constructing a navigation image that includes an endoscopic image, which represents the intracorporeal lumen of the subject and is produced by an endoscope that picks up images of an intracorporeal lumen of a subject, and the three-dimensional image;

a route designating procedure for designating and calculating a route that starts with a point at which the endoscope is inserted and ends with a point at which the endoscope reaches a target region of the subject, and that is used to present the course of the endoscope to be steered in order to insert the endoscope;

a second navigation image constructing procedure for constructing reduced images of three-dimensional images, which represent all branch points on the determined route at which the lumen branches out, according to the result of calculation performed according to the route designating procedure, and for constructing the navigation image that has the reduced images added thereto;

an image display control procedure for displaying the navigation image, which is constructed according to the second navigation image constructing procedure, on a monitor.

17. An endoscopic image display method, comprising:

an endoscopic image data reception step of receiving image data that represents a lumen of a subject and that is picked up by an endoscope;

a first subject image data construction step of constructing first subject image data, which represents a lumen, on the basis of three-dimensional data acquired from the subject;

a second subject image data construction step of constructing second subject image data, which represents a lumen, on the basis of the three-dimensional data representing the interior of the subject;

an endoscopic image display step of displaying the endoscopic image on the basis of the endoscopic image data;

a first subject image display step of displaying the first subject image on the basis of the first subject image data; and

a second subject image display step of displaying the second subject image on the basis of the second subject image data.

18. The endoscopic image display method according to claim 17, wherein the three-dimensional data acquired from the subject is data representing bronchi.

19. The endoscopic image display method according to claim 18, wherein an image representing a branch point of the bronchi is constructed at the first subject image data construction step.

20. The endoscopic image display method according to claim 18, wherein:

images representing a plurality of different branch points of the bronchi are constructed at the second subject image data construction step; and

the images representing the plurality of different branch points of the bronchi are displayed at the second subject image display step.

21. The endoscopic image display method according to claim 20, wherein at least part of the images representing the branch points of the bronchi displayed at the second subject image display step are displayed in the order of their being juxtaposed along the course of the endoscope to be steered in order to insert the endoscope.

22. An endoscopic image display program comprising:

an endoscopic image data reception step of receiving image data that represents a lumen of a subject and that is picked up by an endoscope;

a first subject image data construction step of constructing first subject image data, which represents a lumen, on the basis of three-dimensional data acquired from the subject;

a second subject image data construction step of constructing second subject image data, which represents a lumen, on the basis of three-dimensional data representing the interior of the subject;

an endoscopic image display step of displaying an endoscopic image on the basis of the endoscopic image data;

a first subject image display step of displaying the first subject image on the basis of the first subject image data; and

a second subject image display step of displaying a second subject image on the basis of the second subject image data.

23. The endoscopic image display program according to claim 22, wherein the three-dimensional data acquired from the subject is data representing bronchi.

24. The endoscopic image display program according to claim 23, wherein an image representing a branch point of the bronchi is constructed at the first subject image data construction step.

25. The endoscopic image display program according to claim 23, wherein:

images representing a plurality of different branch points of the bronchi are constructed at the second subject image data construction step; and

the images representing the plurality of different branch points of the bronchi are displayed at the second subject image display step.

26. The endoscopic image display program according to claim 25, wherein at least part of the images representing the branch points of the bronchi displayed at the second subject image display step are displayed in the order of their being juxtaposed along the course of the endoscope to be steered in order to insert the endoscope.

27. An endoscopic image display method comprising:

an endoscopic image data reception step of receiving image data that represents a lumen of a subject and that is picked up by an endoscope;

a first subject image data construction step of constructing first subject image data, which represents a lumen, on the basis of three-dimensional data acquired from the subject;

a second subject image data construction step of constructing second subject image data, which represents a lumen, on the basis of the three-dimensional data representing the interior of the subject; and

a display step of displaying an endoscopic image that is based on the endoscopic image data received at the endoscopic image data reception step, a first subject image that is constructed at the first subject image data construction step, and a second subject image that is constructed at the second subject image data construction step.