Fluorescence diagnosis endoscope system

• US 6,471,636 B1
• Filed: 11/30/1999
• Issued: 10/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Sano, Hiroshi, Adachi, Rensuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Leubecker, John P.
• Application Number:
  US09/450,510
• Time in Patent Office: 1,064 Days
• Field of Search: 600/160, 600/178, 600/109, 600/476, 600/407, 348/65, 348/68, 348/71, 348/72, 348/76
• US Class Current: 600/109
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0005 combining images e.g. side-by-side, superimposed or tiled
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00186 with imaging filters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/043 for fluorescence imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0638 providing two or more wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0646 with illumination filters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0669 at proximal end of an endoscope
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0066 Optical coherence imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6852 Catheters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/555 for picking-up images in sites, inaccessible due to their dimensions or hazardous conditions, e.g. endoscopes or borescopes

Abstract

Provided is a fluorescence diagnosis endoscope system used to observe human tissue. The system has a light source for illuminating said tissue with a normal light and an excitation light having a certain wavelength range. The human tissue fluoresces in response to the illumination with the excitation light. The system further has a pair of image receiving elements for outputting image signals corresponding to received optical images, receptively. A filter which transmits only light produced by said fluoresced tissue is provided in front of one image receiving element. The image signals output by the image receiving elements are selectively processed and transmitted to a display.

Claims

1. A video processing unit for an endoscope, comprising:

first and second image signal processing circuits, each of said image signal processing circuit being capable of receiving an image signal transmitted from an image receiving element of an endoscope, said first image signal processing circuit processing an image signal representing a color image, and said second image processing circuit processing an image signal representing a fluorescent image,

wherein said second image signal processing circuit integrates a plurality of frames corresponding to light having a predetermined wavelength range to generate one frame of a video signal, said frame of said video signal having a brightness higher than a brightness corresponding to each of said image signals.

2. The video processing unit according to claim 1, wherein said first image signal processing circuit receives image signals representative of a plurality of frames corresponding to a plurality of components of light, said first image signal processing circuit outputting a frame of a video signal.

3. The video processing unit according to claim 1, wherein said predetermined wavelength range is a range between 500 nm and 600 nm.

4. The video processing unit according to claim 1, further comprising a video signal receiver that receives video signals output by said first and said second image signal processing circuits and outputs a signal which coincides with one of said video signals.

5. The video processing unit according to claim 4, wherein said video signal receiver that receives video signals output by said first and said second image signal processing circuits outputs a signal which is a combined signal of said video signals.

6. The video processing unit according to claim 1, a plurality of signal input terminals of said first and said second image signal processing circuits being provided independently from each other.

7. The video processing unit according to claim 1, further comprising:

a manually operable switch; and

an image synthesis circuit, wherein

said first image signal processing circuit outputs a frame of a color image video signal to said image synthesis circuit,

said second image signal processing circuit outputs a frame of a fluorescent video signal to said image synthesis circuit, and

said image synthesis circuit outputs at least one of said color image video signal and said fluorescence image video signal.