Patent ID: 8019405

Claim:
A device for the picture-providing diagnosis of a tissue selectively using one of at least two diagnosis modes including a first mode for a picture-providing white light diagnosis and a second mode for a picture-providing auto-fluorescence diagnosis, said device comprising: a light source emitting a light; a conventional 3-chip colour camera comprising a red sensor, a green sensor, and a blue sensor for red, green and blue colour regions, respectively; an endoscope connected to said light source and configured to lead the light emitted from said light source to the tissue, said light emitted by said light source comprising a fluorescence excitation light and an additional red light when said device is in said picture-providing auto-fluorescence diagnosis mode, wherein said additional red light is configured to cause an intensity of red light remitted by the tissue in said picture providing auto-fluorescence diagnosis mode to be greater than an intensity of red fluorescence emitted by the tissue such that a signal produced by said red sensor in the picture-providing auto-fluorescence diagnosis mode is dominated by the remitted red light and the intensity of the red fluorescence emitted by the tissue is a negligible component of the signal produced by the red sensor; a picture transmission unit in said endoscope configured to transmit a picture of the tissue from said endoscope to said colour camera to permit the pictorial diagnosis of the tissue; and a picture processor connected to said red, green and blue sensors of said colour camera and a monitor, wherein said picture processor generates picture signals for said monitor from said red, green, and blue sensors in both the picture-providing white light diagnosis mode and the picture-providing auto-fluorescence diagnosis mode, and wherein said picture processor includes means for damping electrical signals, said means for damping electrical signals being configured and dimensioned to dampen electrical signals produced by said red sensor in said picture-providing auto-fluorescence diagnosis mode such that an amplitude of the dampened electrical signals produced by said red sensor is between a range of amplitudes of electrical signals produced by said green sensor in the auto-fluorescence diagnosis mode.