Patent ID: 9585612
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: A61B,G01N

Claim:
1. A method for analyzing an area of tissue, comprising: illuminating the area of tissue to be analyzed using white light; producing a first image of the area of tissue based on the white light, wherein the white light contains all the wavelengths of visible light; illuminating the area of tissue using a first fluorescence excitation light of a first excitation wavelength range; producing a second image of the area of tissue using fluorescence excited by the first fluorescence excitation light; introducing a dye that is excitable to fluoresce in a near-infrared range by an excitation light of a second excitation wavelength range into the area of tissue; illuminating the area of tissue using a second fluorescence excitation light of the second excitation wavelength range selected to excite fluorescence of the dye; producing a third image of the area of tissue using fluorescence excited by the second fluorescence excitation light in response to detection of the dye by a sensor; upon production of the third image, storing the third image, both automatically and in phase synchrony with an ECG signal in an image processing system; converting the third image in the near-infrared range to a fourth image in a visible range; and displaying the first, second, and third or fourth images simultaneously to a user.