Patent ID: 6556854
Filing Date: 2003-04-29
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A blood vessel imaging system comprising:a measuring light source which emits a measuring light beam; an optical homodyne interference system which splits first and second light beams from the measuring light beam, causes the first and second light beams to impinge upon the same irradiating point on an organism in different directions, and combines together the first and second light beams scattered at the irradiating point into a combined scattered light beam having homodyne beat components a scanning means which causes the first and second light beams to scan the organism; an optical heterodyne detection system including an optical heterodyne interference system which splits a third light beam from the measuring light beam and combines the third light beam with the combined scattered light beam emanating from the optical homodyne interference system into a combined output light beam, a frequency shifter which causes a frequency difference between the third light beam and the first and second light beams, and a beat component detecting means which detects beat components of the combined output light beam and outputs a heterodyne beat component detection signal, and an image signal generating means which generates an image signal on the basis of the frequency of the homodyne beat components, generated by the optical homodyne interference system, included in the heterodyne beat component detection signal output from the optical heterodyne detection system.