JP2002102146A - Method and device for displaying fluorescent image - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To visibly display the tissual property of an organism on a display screen in a method and device for displaying a fluorescent image. SOLUTION: By computation based on a narrow band fluorescent image obtained by imaging fluorescent light emitted from biological tissue irradiated with excitation light Le in a wavelength area from 430 nm to an approximate 530 nm, a wide band image obtained by imaging the fluorescent light emitted from the biological tissue irradiated with the excitation light Le in a wavelength area from 430 nm to 730 nm and a reflected reference image obtained by imaging reflected reference light reflected by the biological tissue irradiated with reference light, a tissual property image showing the tissual property of the biological tissue is prepared and displayed. An invalid area 52 as an area other than a window 53 showing the tissual property image is displayed by a picture element value 0, distinguishing from the window 53 for ease of viewing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fluorescence image display method and apparatus for displaying an image showing the tissue properties of a living tissue based on fluorescence emitted from the living tissue by irradiation of excitation light.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known an apparatus which irradiates a living tissue with excitation light, detects auto-fluorescence generated from the living tissue as an image, and observes the tissue properties of the living body. For example, a living tissue in a body cavity is irradiated with excitation light having a wavelength of about 410 nm, and is expressed by a ratio between the intensity of fluorescence generated from the living tissue by the irradiation of the excitation light and the intensity of the excitation light received by the living tissue. And the normalized fluorescence intensity represented by the ratio of the intensity in the wavelength region near 480 nm in the fluorescence generated by the irradiation of the excitation light to the intensity in the wavelength region from 430 nm to 730 nm. An endoscope apparatus for observing tissue properties of a living body by using an image has been proposed.

[0003] The above-mentioned fluorescence yield is such that when normal tissues and diseased tissues of a living body receive excitation light of the same intensity, the intensity of autofluorescence generated from normal tissues becomes higher than the intensity of autofluorescence generated from diseased tissues. Is an index for discriminating between a diseased tissue and a normal tissue based on the fluorescence yield, and the fluorescence yield is the intensity of the received light of the excitation light and the emission intensity of the autofluorescence generated by the reception of the excitation light at the same measurement site. Is used as a stable index indicating the tissue properties of the living body that are not affected by the distance and angle between the exit point for irradiating the excitation light and the measurement site of the living tissue to be irradiated with the excitation light. be able to.

In actually obtaining the fluorescence yield, it is difficult to directly measure the intensity of the excitation light received by the living tissue, so that the reference light having a wavelength region such as near-infrared light which is hardly absorbed by the living tissue is difficult. The intensity of the excitation light received by the living tissue is substituted by the intensity of light reflected by the irradiated living tissue (hereinafter referred to as reflected reference light), and the fluorescence yield is determined.

That is, the fluorescence yield is a value determined based on the ratio of the intensity of the fluorescence generated from the living tissue irradiated with the excitation light to the intensity of the excitation light irradiated to the living tissue. The approximate value of the fluorescence yield is approximated based on the ratio between the intensity of the fluorescence generated from the living tissue irradiated with the excitation light and the intensity of the reflected reference light reflected by the living tissue irradiated with the reference light. Calculate the value of the fluorescence yield.

On the other hand, the normalized fluorescence intensity is based on the fact that the shapes of the spectra of the fluorescence generated from the normal tissue and the diseased tissue of the living body irradiated with the excitation light differ in the wavelength region near 480 nm. It is an index for discriminating from a tissue, and is an index that is not affected by the distance and angle between the emission point for irradiating the excitation light and the measurement site of the living tissue to be irradiated with the excitation light, like the fluorescence yield.

[0007] As described above, in an endoscope apparatus or the like for observing tissue properties in a body cavity as an image, a tissue property image created using the above-described indices such as the fluorescence yield and the normalized fluorescence intensity is displayed to display the tissue property image. Observe the tissue characteristics.

[0008]

However, an imaging area for imaging the tissue properties of a living body on an imaging element, an imaging area for imaging the imaged area, and a display area for displaying the imaged image Often have different areas, for example, an image of a living tissue to be observed is formed in a circular shape on a square image sensor, and a square image captured by this image sensor has a rectangular shape. In the case where the image is displayed on the display screen, the observer observes the tissue property of the living body displayed in a circular shape in the square imaging area displayed on the rectangular display screen, and Outside the circular area in the display screen where the tissue properties are displayed,
Since a noise or the like due to a signal output from a pixel in an area where an image of a living tissue around the imaging element is not formed is displayed, a display screen which is difficult for an observer to see may be displayed. There is a risk of making a mistake.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a fluorescent image display method and apparatus capable of displaying the tissue properties of a living body on a display screen in an easily viewable manner.

[0010]

According to the fluorescent image display method of the present invention, a first fluorescent image obtained by detecting, in a specific wavelength region, fluorescent light emitted from a living tissue irradiated with excitation light. And detecting a second fluorescence image obtained by detecting the fluorescence in a wavelength region different from the specific wavelength region or reflected reference light reflected by the living tissue irradiated with the reference light. By a calculation based on the reflected reference light image obtained by the above, to create a tissue property image representing the tissue property of the living tissue corrected distance to the living tissue, in a fluorescence image display method for displaying this tissue property image, A tissue property display area for displaying a property image and an invalid area other than the tissue property display area are displayed in different forms.

[0011] The fluorescence image display device of the present invention comprises: a first fluorescence image obtained by detecting fluorescence emitted from a living tissue irradiated with excitation light in a specific wavelength region; A second fluorescence image obtained by detecting in a wavelength region different from the specific wavelength region or a reflection reference obtained by detecting reflected reference light reflected by the living tissue irradiated with the reference light By calculating based on the optical image, a tissue property image representing the tissue property of the living tissue with the distance to the living tissue corrected is created, and a tissue image displaying the tissue property image is displayed on a fluorescent image display device that displays the tissue property image. A display area control means for displaying the property display area and the invalid area other than the tissue property display area in different forms from each other is provided.

[0012] The display area control means converts a pixel value of an area corresponding to an invalid area in at least one of the images obtained by the detection into an area corresponding to a tissue property display area in the image. Or to change the pixel value of the area corresponding to the invalid area to a value different from the pixel value of the area corresponding to the tissue property display area when creating a tissue property image. When creating a tissue property image, these pixel values shall be changed to values different from the pixel values of the area corresponding to the tissue property display area without calculating the pixel values of the area corresponding to the invalid area. Or change the value of the signal corresponding to the invalid area in the video signal to a value different from the value of the signal in the area corresponding to the tissue property display area. It can be or shall be subjected to a physical.

Further, the display area control means may display only a portion excluding a peripheral portion of the tissue property image as a tissue property display area.

[0014] The fluorescent image display device may be an endoscope device having an endoscope insertion portion to be inserted into a living body.

Further, the light source of the excitation light may be a GaN-based semiconductor laser. Note that the oscillation wavelength of the GaN-based semiconductor laser is preferably in the range of 400 nm to 420 nm.

It is appropriate to use light having a wavelength of around 410 nm as the excitation light.
The wavelength region extending over 730 nm is defined as a specific wavelength region, and 48
It is appropriate that the wavelength region near 0 nm is a wavelength region different from the specific wavelength region.

As the reference light, it is appropriate to use near-infrared light which is hardly absorbed by living tissue.

The calculation is based on the ratio between the value of each pixel of the first fluorescent image and the value of each pixel of the second fluorescent image corresponding to each pixel of the first fluorescent image. Fluorescence is calculated based on the calculation of the normalized fluorescence intensity or the ratio of the value of each pixel of the first fluorescence image to the value of each pixel of the reflected reference light image corresponding to each pixel of the first fluorescence image. This means an operation for obtaining an image representing a lesion of a living tissue, such as an operation for obtaining the yield, or an operation for combining an image representing the shape of the living tissue with the image representing the lesion of the living tissue. Things.

The display in different forms is
To make it easy to distinguish between the tissue property display area and the invalid area,
This means that the images are displayed in different forms such as colors and brightness.

Further, changing the pixel value of the area corresponding to the invalid area to a value different from the pixel value of the area corresponding to the tissue property display area means that the tissue property display area and the invalid area are not displayed when displayed on the display screen. Are different from each other,
This means that the pixel value of the invalid area is changed to a value different from the pixel value of the tissue property display area.

The non-display mask processing is to display (mask) an area other than the tissue property display area on the display screen in a predetermined display form and display the detected image only in the tissue property display area. Means a region to be processed.

The displayed image may be a moving image or a still image.

Further, even if the fluorescence emitted from the living tissue is the fluorescence (drug fluorescence) generated when the living tissue to which the fluorescent diagnostic agent has been previously absorbed is irradiated with excitation light, the fluorescent diagnostic agent is absorbed. It may be either fluorescence (auto-fluorescence) generated when the living tissue is irradiated with excitation light.

[0024]

According to the fluorescent image display method and apparatus of the present invention, when creating and displaying a tissue property image representing the tissue property of a living body, a tissue property display area for displaying the tissue property image, and the tissue property display area Since the invalid areas other than the areas are displayed in different forms from each other,
The tissue property display area and the invalid area can be clearly distinguished, and the tissue property of the living body can be displayed on the display screen in an easily viewable manner.

Further, the display area control means may determine a pixel value of an area corresponding to the invalid area in at least one of the images obtained by the detection by using a pixel value of the tissue property display area in the image. When changing the pixel value to a value different from the pixel value, or when creating a tissue property image, changing the pixel value of the area corresponding to the invalid area to a value different from the pixel value of the area corresponding to the tissue property display area, If the value of the signal corresponding to the invalid area in the medium is changed to a value different from the value of the signal of the area corresponding to the tissue property display area, or if the non-display mask processing is performed on the video signal in the invalid area, ,
The tissue property display area and the invalid area can be more clearly distinguished, and the tissue property of the living body can be displayed more easily on the display screen.

Further, when creating the tissue property image, these pixel values are changed to values different from the pixel values of the area corresponding to the tissue property display area without calculating the pixel values of the area corresponding to the invalid area. By doing so, the tissue property display area and the invalid area can be more clearly distinguished, the tissue property of the living body can be displayed more easily on the display screen, and the amount of calculation can be reduced.

Further, if the display area control means displays only the part excluding the peripheral part of the tissue property image as the tissue property display area, for example, the tissue property is displayed in the light receiving area of the light receiving pixel on the image sensor. The boundary of the image forming region of the image exists, and the value of the image signal output from this pixel becomes an inaccurate value that does not correspond to the tissue property of the living body, and the calculation result representing the tissue property of the living body and its display become unstable Even in such a case, it is possible to display the region except for the region corresponding to the image signal output from the pixel located in the boundary region, so that the tissue property of the living body can be displayed more easily on the display screen.

Further, if the fluorescent image display device is an endoscope device having an endoscope insertion portion for inserting the inside of the living body, the inside of the living body can be observed more easily.

If the light source of the excitation light is a GaN-based semiconductor laser, the size of the apparatus can be reduced and the cost can be reduced.

[0030]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a fluorescent endoscope apparatus in which a fluorescent image display apparatus that performs the fluorescent image display method of the present invention is applied to an endoscope.

The fluorescence endoscope apparatus 80 of the present invention
e, a first fluorescence image obtained by detecting fluorescence emitted from the living tissue 1 in a specific wavelength region, and detecting the fluorescence in a wavelength region different from the specific wavelength region. The living tissue 1 is calculated based on the second fluorescence image obtained as described above or the reflected reference light image obtained by detecting the reflected reference light reflected by the living tissue 1 irradiated with the reference light Ls.
A tissue property image representing the tissue property of the living tissue 1 in which the distance to the tissue property is corrected is created, and in displaying the tissue property image, a tissue property display area for displaying the tissue property image and an area other than the tissue property display area Has a display area control circuit 60 which is a display area control means for displaying the invalid area in a different form.

The fluorescence endoscope device 80 has a wavelength of 410 n.
The light source unit 10 generates the excitation light Le of m and the reference light Ls in the near-infrared wavelength region. The light source 21 is connected to the light source unit 10, and the excitation light Le and the reference light Ls emitted from the light source unit 10 are transmitted to the light guide 21. The living tissue 1 is irradiated through the lens 22, and the fluorescence image Zk and the reference light L by the fluorescence generated from the living tissue 1 by the irradiation of the excitation light Le.
The reflected reference light image Zs reflected by the living tissue 1 by the irradiation of the s
Endoscope insertion unit 20 which forms an image on end surface 25A of the endoscope and propagates to end surface 25B at the other end, end surface 25 of image guide 25
B (the fluorescence image Zk and the reflected reference light image Z)
s) is imaged on an image sensor through an image forming lens 31 and a rotation filter 32, and the image is taken and output as respective image data. An image data obtained by the image pickup unit 30 is calculated. An operation unit 40 that creates and outputs a tissue property image representing the tissue property of the living tissue, a display unit 50 that displays the tissue property image output from the calculation unit 40, the imaging unit 30 or the calculation unit 40, or the display unit 50
Display area control circuit 6 for displaying the tissue property display area and the invalid area in different forms by controlling
0, and a device control unit 70 for controlling the entire device.

The imaging unit 30 includes a fan-shaped narrow band filter section 32A for transmitting light in a wavelength range of 430 nm to 530 nm as shown in FIG.
The broadband filter unit 32B that transmits light in the wavelength range of ７730 nm and the near-infrared band filter unit 32C that transmits light in the wavelength range of 750 to 900 nm are combined and integrated, and rotated by the motor 38. The rotation filter 32, an image sensor 33 that captures an image of fluorescence and an image of reflected reference light formed through the rotation filter 32, and an A / D converter that converts an analog image signal output from the image sensor 33 into a digital image signal. Circuit 3
4 and the end face 2 of the image guide 25.
A fluorescent image Zk propagated to 5B is captured through a narrow-band filter 32A, and the output is subjected to A / D conversion to obtain a second image.
A narrow-band fluorescent image memory 35 for storing narrow-band fluorescent image data as a fluorescent image of
2B, a broadband fluorescent image memory 36 for storing broadband fluorescent image data as a first fluorescent image obtained by A / D converting the output, and reflected reference light propagated to the end face 25B of the image guide 25. The image Zk is taken through the near-infrared bandpass filter 32C, the output thereof is A / D-converted, and the reflected reference light image memory 37 for storing the reflected reference light image data, and the reflected reference light image data are inputted. And a tissue property display area determiner 39 for determining a tissue property display area.

The arithmetic unit 40 stores the narrow band fluorescent image data stored in the narrow band fluorescent image memory 35 and the broad band fluorescent image data or the reflected reference light image memory 37 stored in the wide band fluorescent image memory 36. A feature quantity for obtaining and outputting feature quantity image data representing a diseased tissue such as a fluorescence yield or a normalized fluorescence intensity (both are collectively referred to as a feature quantity) by calculation based on the stored reflected reference light image data. The extraction arithmetic unit 41 combines the feature amount image data representing the diseased tissue output from the feature amount extraction arithmetic unit 41 with the reflected reference light image data representing the shape of the living tissue to obtain a tissue property image and output it as a video signal. A tissue property image calculator 42 is provided.

As a light source of the excitation light Le emitted from the light source unit 10, a GaN-based semiconductor laser is used, and the light guide 2 of the endoscope insertion unit 20 is used.
The image guide 1 and the image guide 25 are disposed along a flexible endoscope insertion portion.

The timing of the irradiation of the excitation light Le and the reference light Ls emitted from the light source unit 10 and the timing of the image pickup by the image pickup device 33 are synchronized with the rotation of the rotary filter 32.
It is controlled by 0. In addition, the apparatus control unit 70 also sets the acquisition mode of the tissue property image in the arithmetic unit 40, and sets the control target of the display area control circuit 60.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

First, according to the setting of the device control unit 70, the characteristic amount image data is obtained as an image representing the normalized fluorescence intensity, and the tissue property image is obtained as an image obtained by combining the characteristic amount image data and the reflected reference light image data. A case in which the display area control circuit 60 is set to be controlled by the display unit 50 will be described.

The fluorescent light emitted from the living tissue 1 by the irradiation of the excitation light Le emitted from the light source unit 10 and propagated through the light guide 21 of the endoscope insertion unit 20 and emitted from the lens 22 at the tip thereof is used as an objective. Through a lens 23, an excitation light cut filter 24, and an image guide 25, an end face 25 of the image guide 25 is formed as a fluorescent image Zk.
Propagated to B. At this time, together with the fluorescent light, the objective lens 23
The reflected light of the excitation light Le reflected by the living tissue 1 incident on the excitation light is blocked by the excitation light cut filter 24.

The fluorescent image Zk propagated to the end face 25B of the image fiber is formed on the image pickup element 33 by the image forming lens 31 and is picked up. 530
The image by the fluorescence in the wavelength region of nm is captured by the image sensor 33 as a narrow band fluorescent image, and the rotation filter 32
430 nm to 73 transmitted through the broadband filter unit 32B
An image formed by fluorescence in a wavelength region of 0 nm is captured by the image sensor 33 as a broadband fluorescent image, and these captured images are subjected to A / D conversion, and then converted into narrowband fluorescent image data and narrowband fluorescent image data, respectively. It is stored in the fluorescent image memory 35 and the broadband fluorescent image memory 36.

The reflected reference light emitted from the light source unit 10, propagated through the light guide 21 of the endoscope insertion unit 20, and reflected by the living tissue 1 by the irradiation of the reference light Ls emitted from the lens 22 at the tip thereof. Is also transmitted to the end face 25B of the image guide 25 in the same manner as the fluorescence. The reflected reference light image Zs propagated to the end face 25B of the image fiber is converted by the imaging lens 31 into the image sensor 33.
At this time, 750 nm to 900 n transmitted through the near-infrared band filter unit 32 </ b> C of the rotation filter 32.
The image formed by the reflected reference light in the wavelength range over m is picked up and output by the image pickup device 33 as a reflected reference light image, and A / A
After being D-converted, it is stored in the reflection reference light image memory 37 as reflection reference light image data, and is also output to the tissue property display area determination unit 39.

The tissue property display area determining unit 39 to which the reflected reference light image data is input, the reflected reference light image data is changed in accordance with the movement of the observation position of the living tissue and the image area is changed in accordance with the movement of the observation position. Determine an image area that does not change, determine an image area that changes according to the movement of the observation position as a tissue property display area, and output the position information thereof.
The output position information of the tissue property display area is input to the display area control circuit 60 and stored.

The narrow-band fluorescent image data and the wide-band fluorescent image data stored in the narrow-band fluorescent image memory 35 and the wide-band fluorescent image memory 36 are input to the feature value extraction calculator 41, and are captured by the same pixel in the image sensor 33. The division between the calculated pixel values is performed for all the pixels (that is, the ratio between the pixel values is obtained for all the pixels), and the characteristic amount image data representing the normalized fluorescence intensity is obtained. The feature amount image data is input to the tissue property image calculator 42 together with the reflected reference light image data stored in the reflected reference light image memory 37, synthesized to obtain a tissue property image, converted into a video signal, and output. .

When the video signal representing the tissue property image output from the tissue property image calculator 42 is input to the display unit 50, a non-display mask process is performed on an invalid area in the video signal. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the display unit 50 is controlled by the control signal transmitted from the display area control circuit 60 storing the position information of the tissue property display area.
In the display screen 51, a circular window 5 at the center corresponding to an area (ineffective area 52) other than the tissue property display area
3 is performed (non-display mask processing is performed), and a tissue property image is displayed in a circular window 53 corresponding to the tissue property display area. This allows
An image representing the tissue property of the living body is displayed in the masked window on the display screen, and the tissue property of the living body can be displayed on the display screen in an easily viewable manner.

Also, as described above, the display area control circuit 60
Is set to the display unit 50, the value of the signal corresponding to the invalid area in the video signal input by the display unit 50 is displayed in the tissue property display area instead of masking the display screen. You may make it change into a value different from the value of the signal of the corresponding area | region. That is, according to the control signal transmitted from the display area control circuit 60 storing the position information of the tissue property display area, a signal corresponding to an area other than the tissue property display area in the video signal input to the display unit 50 is output. The display unit 50 may be controlled by the display area control circuit 60 so that, for example, a value having the lowest luminance is assigned to the value, and the invalid area, which is an area other than the tissue property display area, is displayed dark.

By changing the setting by the device control unit 70, the method of obtaining the tissue property image and the control target of the display area control circuit 60 can be changed. Instead of using the normalized fluorescence intensity as the feature image data, To
The fluorescence yield obtained by dividing the narrow-band fluorescence image data by the reflected reference light image data (that is, determined based on the ratio of the narrow-band fluorescence image data to the reflected reference light image data) is used. Without combining the reflected reference light image data, the feature amount image data is output as a tissue property image as it is, or the control target of the display area control circuit 60 is changed to the arithmetic unit 40 or the imaging unit 30 instead of the display unit 50. And can be changed.

For example, when the arithmetic unit 40 is to be controlled by the display area control circuit 60, the pixel values of the area corresponding to the invalid area correspond to the tissue property display area when creating the tissue property image. The arithmetic unit 40 may be controlled by the display area control circuit 60 so as to change to a value different from the pixel value of the area. That is, when synthesizing the feature amount image data and the reflected reference light image data by the tissue property image calculator 42, the pixel value of the area other than the tissue property display area is different from the pixel value representing the tissue property image area,
For example, the display area control circuit 6 changes the pixel value to 0.
The arithmetic unit 40 may be controlled by 0.

In the case where the characteristic amount image data is output as it is as the tissue characteristic image data without combining the characteristic amount image data and the reflected reference light image data in the tissue characteristic image arithmetic unit 42, the characteristic amount extraction arithmetic unit When calculating the feature amount image data in 41, the display area is changed so that the pixel value of the area other than the tissue property display area is different from the pixel value representing the tissue property of the tissue property image area, for example, the pixel value is changed to 0. The arithmetic unit 40 may be controlled by the control circuit 60.

When the imaging unit 30 is to be controlled by the display area control circuit 60, the pixel value of the area corresponding to the invalid area in at least one of the images obtained by the detection is determined. The display area control circuit 60 changes the imaging unit 30 to a value different from the pixel value of the area corresponding to the tissue property display area in this image.
May be controlled. That is, the narrow band fluorescent image memory 3
5, the broadband fluorescent image data stored in the broadband fluorescent image memory 36, and the reflected reference light image data stored in the reflected reference light image memory 37. One
For example, for the reflected reference light image data, the pixel value of the area corresponding to the area other than the tissue property display area in the image data is different from the pixel value of the area corresponding to the tissue property display area in the image data, for example, The display area control circuit 60 changes the imaging unit 30 so that the pixel value is changed to 0.
May be controlled.

As a result, the pixel value representing an area other than the tissue property display area in the reflected reference light image data becomes 0, and when the calculation of the fluorescence yield is performed in the feature quantity extraction calculator 41, that is, the narrow band fluorescent image When the data is divided by the reflected reference light image data, the pixel value of the invalid area in the feature amount image data becomes a pixel value obtained by performing a zero division operation,
The pixel value of the invalid area can be changed to a value different from the pixel value of the tissue property display area.

To change the pixel value of the area corresponding to the area other than the tissue property display area in the reflected reference light image data to 0, the pixel value corresponding to the area other than the tissue property display area in the image sensor 33 is changed. The image signal output from the CPU is output as a signal for setting the pixel value of the reflected reference light image data to 0, or the A / D conversion circuit 34 corresponds to an area other than the tissue property display area in the reflected reference light image data. A method of changing the pixel value to be output to 0 and outputting it can be adopted.

When the display area control circuit 60 changes the pixel value of an area other than the tissue property display area,
The operation unit 40 is controlled by the display area control circuit 60 so as not to perform the operation in the invalid area when creating the tissue property image, or the pixel corresponding to the area other than the tissue property display area in the image sensor 33 is used. The controller of the imaging device 33 in the imaging unit 30 may be controlled by the display area control circuit 60 so that the image signal is output only from the pixel corresponding to the tissue property display area without outputting the image signal. As a result, the amount of arithmetic processing is reduced, and the load on the device is reduced.

Further, the tissue property display area is not limited to the case where the tissue property display area is determined by the tissue property display area determination unit 39, and the position information of the tissue property display area that has been acquired in advance is stored in the display area control circuit 60. May be. In such a case, the tissue property display area determiner 39 becomes unnecessary.

Further, the display area control circuit 60 controls the display unit 50, the arithmetic unit 40 or the imaging unit 30 so that only the portion excluding the peripheral portion of the tissue property image is displayed in the tissue property display area. It may be. That is, by controlling any one of the units by the display area control circuit 60 so as to perform the same processing as that performed on the invalid area in the peripheral area of the tissue property image, as shown in FIG. An image excluding the peripheral portion 54 of the tissue property image containing a relatively large amount of noise is displayed in the tissue property display area 53 'on the display screen, and the peripheral part 54 of the tissue property image is displayed as the invalid area 52'. Therefore, the tissue properties of the living body can be displayed more easily on the display screen 51. The shape of the tissue property display area 53 ′ may be any shape such as a circular shape, an elliptical shape, a square shape, and a rectangular shape as long as the shape is suitable for excluding the peripheral portion of the tissue property image. .

Further, GaN is not necessarily used as the excitation light source.
It is not necessary to use a system-based semiconductor laser, and a gas laser or the like may be used.

The fluorescent image display method and apparatus of the present invention can be applied not only to a fluorescent endoscope apparatus having an endoscope insertion section but also to a colposcope, a surgical microscope, and the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a fluorescent endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of the structure of a rotary filter.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display screen on which masking has been performed;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display screen displaying an image excluding a peripheral portion of a tissue property image;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 living tissue 10 light source unit 20 endoscope insertion unit 30 imaging unit 33 imaging element 40 arithmetic unit 50 display unit 51 display screen 52 invalid area 53 window 60 display area control circuit 70 device control unit 80 fluorescent endoscope device Le excitation light Ls reference light

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2H040 BA22 CA02 CA27 GA02 GA10 GA12 4C061 CC06 HH51 JJ06 NN05 QQ04 RR04 SS18 WW02 WW17 5C054 AA05 CA02 CA06 CC02 CH07 EA01 EA05 EG01 FC12 FE13 HA12

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A first fluorescence image obtained by detecting fluorescence emitted from a living tissue irradiated with excitation light in a specific wavelength region, and the first fluorescence image is different from the specific wavelength region. Calculation based on a second fluorescence image obtained by detecting in the wavelength region or a reflected reference light image obtained by detecting reflected reference light reflected by the living tissue irradiated with the reference light. In the fluorescence image display method for creating a tissue property image representing the tissue property of the living tissue with the distance to the living tissue corrected, and displaying the tissue property image, a tissue property display area for displaying the tissue property image A method of displaying an ineffective area other than the tissue property display area in a different form. 2. A first fluorescence image obtained by detecting fluorescence emitted from a living tissue irradiated with excitation light in a specific wavelength region, and the first fluorescence image is different from the specific wavelength region. Calculation based on a second fluorescence image obtained by detecting in the wavelength region or a reflected reference light image obtained by detecting reflected reference light reflected by the living tissue irradiated with the reference light. In a fluorescent image display device that creates a tissue property image representing the tissue property of the living tissue with the distance to the living tissue corrected, and displays the tissue property image, a tissue property display area that displays the tissue property image And a display area control means for displaying an invalid area other than the tissue property display area in a different form from each other. 3. The system according to claim 3, wherein the display area control unit displays a pixel value of an area corresponding to the invalid area in at least one of the images obtained by the detection in the tissue property display in the image. 3. The fluorescent image display device according to claim 2, wherein the value is changed to a value different from a pixel value of an area corresponding to the area. 4. The display area control means, when creating the tissue property image, changes a pixel value of an area corresponding to the invalid area to a value different from a pixel value of an area corresponding to the tissue property display area. 3. The fluorescent image display device according to claim 2, wherein: 5. The display area control means, when creating the tissue property image, calculates the pixel value of the area corresponding to the invalid area without calculating the pixel value of the area corresponding to the tissue property display area. 3. The fluorescent image display device according to claim 2, wherein the pixel value is changed to a value different from the pixel value. 6. The display according to claim 1, wherein the display is performed by a video signal of the created tissue property image, and the display area control unit sets a value of a signal corresponding to the invalid area in the video signal to the value 3. The fluorescent image display device according to claim 2, wherein the value is changed to a value different from a signal value of an area corresponding to the tissue property display area. 7. The display is performed by a video signal of the created tissue property image, and the display area control means performs a non-display mask process on the video signal in the invalid area. The fluorescent image display device according to claim 2, wherein: 8. The system according to claim 2, wherein the display area control means displays only a part of the tissue property image excluding a peripheral part as the tissue property display area.
8. The fluorescent image display device according to any one of items 1 to 7. 9. The fluorescent image display device according to claim 2, wherein the fluorescent image display device is an endoscope device having an endoscope insertion portion for inserting the fluorescent image display device into a living body. . 10. The fluorescent image display device according to claim 2, further comprising a light source that emits the excitation light, wherein the light source is a GaN-based semiconductor laser.