Medical apparatus

• US 8,102,416 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2011
• Issued: 01/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corporation (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Onishi, Junichi, Ito, Seiichi
• Primary Examiner(s): PHILIPPE, GIMS S
• Application Number:
  US13/023,806
• Publication Number:
  US 20110234780A1
• Time in Patent Office: 349 Days
• Field of Search: 348/65, 348/72, 348/77, 382/128, 434/262, 600/424, 600/423, 600/372
• US Class Current: 348/65
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00158 using magnetic field
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/018 for receiving instruments
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/05 characterised by the image sensor, e.g. camera, being in the distal end portion
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/2676 Bronchoscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2051 Electromagnetic tracking systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/20 Surgical navigation systems; Devices for tracking or guiding surgical instruments, e.g. for frameless stereotaxis

Abstract

A medical apparatus includes an endoscopic insertion portion provided with an image pickup unit and a channel; a treatment unit provided with a sensor and a bending portion and passed through a channel, with a distal end portion of the treatment unit being allowed to protrude from an insertion-portion distal end portion of the endoscopic insertion portion, where the sensor is disposed in the distal end portion and the bending portion is adapted to bend the distal end portion; a storage unit adapted to store three-dimensional image data; a target position setting unit adapted to set the target position based on the three-dimensional image data; a virtual endoscopic image generating unit adapted to generate a virtual endoscopic image using a line-of-sight parameter which includes a position, a direction, and a roll angle of the distal end portion detected by the sensor, based on the three-dimensional image data; and an image processing unit adapted to perform a superimposition process and thereby display operation information used to insert the distal end portion to the target position in superimposition on the virtual endoscopic image.

Claims

1. A medical apparatus comprising:

an endoscopic insertion portion provided with an image pickup unit and a channel which passes through an inner part;

a treatment unit provided with a sensor and a bending portion and passed through the channel, with a distal end portion of the treatment unit being allowed to protrude from an insertion-portion distal end portion of the endoscopic insertion portion, where the sensor is disposed in the distal end portion and configured to detect a position, a direction, and a roll angle and the bending portion is adapted to bend the distal end portion;

a storage unit adapted to store three-dimensional image data of the lumen of a subject acquired in advance;

a target position setting unit adapted to set the target position based on the three-dimensional image data;

a virtual endoscopic image generating unit adapted to generate a virtual endoscopic image using a line-of-sight parameter which includes the position, the direction, and the roll angle of the distal end portion detected by the sensor, based on the three-dimensional image data; and

an image processing unit adapted to perform a superimposition process and thereby display operation information used to insert the distal end portion to the target position in superimposition on the virtual endoscopic image.

2. The medical apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the bending portion is bendable in an up/down direction or a left/right direction; and

the operation information processed by the image processing unit is information about a bending angle of the bending portion and a roll angle of the distal end portion.

3. The medical apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lumen has a plurality of bifurcations.

4. The medical apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing unit further performs a superimposition process of an insertion route used to insert the distal end portion to the predetermined position.

5. The medical apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when there are a plurality of the insertion routes, the image processing unit performs a superimposition process and thereby displays all of the plurality of insertion routes or a selected one of the insertion routes.

6. The medical apparatus according to claim 4, wherein:

the target position setting unit is able to set a target site having a predetermined volume as the target position;

the image processing unit performs a superimposition process and thereby displays the predetermined volume of the target site, a length of the insertion route from the distal end portion to the target site, and a number of bifurcations on the insertion route from the distal end portion to the target site in superimposition with one another.

7. The medical apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a correction unit adapted to correct a position, a direction, and a roll angle detected by the sensor based on an endoscopic image picked up by the image pickup unit and a second virtual endoscopic image having a line-of-sight parameter which includes a position, a direction, and a roll angle of the image pickup unit and calculate a coordinate transformation formula used to transform coordinates of the position detected by the sensor into a coordinate system of the three-dimensional image data.

8. The medical apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the endoscopic image is an image with the distal end portion protruding from the insertion-portion distal end portion picked up.

9. The medical apparatus according to claim 7, wherein a position of the distal end portion of the treatment unit protruding from the insertion-portion distal end portion is located in a place into which the insertion-portion distal end portion is not insertable.

10. The medical apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lumen is a bronchus.

11. The medical apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing unit performs a superimposition process and thereby displays the operation information when at least one of a bending operation of the bending portion and a rotating operation of the distal end portion is necessary.

12. The medical apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the image processing unit determines whether or not the bending operation or the rotating operation is necessary by comparing the bending angle and the roll angle which provide the operation information with respective predetermined thresholds.

13. The medical apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation information processed by the image processing unit is displayed graphically.