MEDICAL APPARATUS

• US 20130012815A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corporation (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: KUBO, Kei, KUGIMIYA, Hideyuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,825,143 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/431
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00147 Holding or positioning arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/041 Capsule endoscopes for imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/043 for fluorescence imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/045 Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0646 with illumination filters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0684 using light emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0059 using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence A61B5/0093, A61B5/1455, A61B5/02416 and A61B5/0261 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0071 by measuring fluorescence emission
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0084 for introduction into the body, e.g. by catheters A61B5/1459 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0086 using infrared radiation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/073 Intestinal transmitters

Abstract

A medical apparatus includes a storing section in which information concerning a drug movement in a living body is stored for each of types of a plurality of fluorescent drugs, an arithmetic processing section that acquires, based on the information stored in the storing section, information concerning a target region to which a fluorescent drug is administered, information concerning a method of administering the fluorescent drug to the target region, and information indicating start of administration of the fluorescent drug, information concerning diagnosis start timing, an image pickup section, a position information acquiring section that acquires position information of the image pickup section, and a light source control section that stops, at least from the administration start timing to the diagnosis start timing, irradiation of excitation light and irradiates the excitation light based on the diagnosis start timing and the position information.

Claims

1. A medical apparatus comprising:

a storing section in which information concerning a drug movement in a living body is stored in advance for each of types of a plurality of fluorescent drugs;

an arithmetic processing section that acquires, based on the information stored in the storing section, information concerning a target region of a subject to which a desired fluorescent drug is administered, information concerning a method of administering the desired fluorescent drug to the target region, and information indicating start of administration of the desired fluorescent drug, information concerning diagnosis start timing corresponding to the desired fluorescent drug;

an image pickup section that picks up an image of an object in the subject;

a position information acquiring section that acquires position information of the image pickup section in the subject; and

a light source control section that controls, at least from the administration start timing to the diagnosis start timing, irradiation of excitation light for exciting the desired fluorescent drug to a stopped state and controls the excitation light to an irradiatable state based on the diagnosis start timing and the position information.

2. The medical apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a determining section that performs, based on a processing result of the arithmetic processing section, determination concerning whether a current time reaches the diagnosis start timing and performs, based on the position information acquired by the position-information acquiring section, determination concerning whether the image pickup section reaches a periphery of the target region, wherein

when it is determined based on a determination result of the determining section that the current time is at or after the diagnosis start timing and the image pickup section reaches the periphery of the target region, the light source control section performs control to start the irradiation of the excitation light.

3. The medical apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

an image generating section that generates image data of the object which is picked up by the image pickup section; and

an additional information giving section that gives, as additional information of the image data generated by the image generating section, an elapsed time after the irradiation of the excitation light is started.

4. The medical apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, when it is determined based on the determination result of the determining section that the image pickup section passes the periphery of the target region, the light source control section performs control to cause an illumination light emitting section, which can switch and emit the excitation light and the white color light, to irradiate the white color light.

5. The medical apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the image pickup section does not reach a periphery of the target region, the medical apparatus can guide the image pickup section to the target region based on operation from an outside of the medical apparatus.

6. The medical apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the image pickup section does not reach a periphery of a site to be observed or when the image pickup section passes the periphery of the target region, the medical apparatus can move the image pickup section to the target region by causing a self-propulsion function of the medical apparatus to operate.