Patent ID: 6638215
Filing Date: 2003-10-28
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A video endoscope system comprising:a visible-light source for emitting visible light; an excitation light source for emitting excitation light that excites living tissue to cause autofluorescence, the excitation light source being arranged so that the emitted excitation light crosses, at a predetermined intersecting point, to an optical path of the visible light emitted from said visible-light source; a light guide for guiding the light to irradiate an object; an optical member disposed at said intersecting point to guide said visible light and said excitation light to said light guide along same optical path; a switching mechanism for switching between the visible light and the excitation light to introduce them into said optical member; an objective optical system for converging those components of light from a surface of the object irradiated with said light guide other than the excitation light to form an image of the surface of the object; an imaging device for picking up the image to convert it into an image signal; and a processor for controlling said switching mechanism to alternately and repeatedly introduce said visible light and said excitation light into the said light guide, generating normal-image data on the basis of a portion of the image signal corresponding to a period during which the visible light is introduced into said light guide, while generating fluorescence image data on the basis of a portion of the image signal corresponding to a period during which the excitation light is introduced into said light guide, obtaining reference image data from said normal-image data, extracting a diseased portion on the basis of the reference image data and said fluorescence image data, and superimposing the diseased portion on said normal-image data to generate diagnostic image data to be displayed as a moving picture.