JP2016112220A - Imaging device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging device which can clearly display an artery by improving its visibility.SOLUTION: In order to improve visibility of an artery, a B image is used where an image of an artery is expressed in black among RGB pixel values of a visible image. That is, the B image in the visible image is inverted by an inversion section of an image processing unit. Then the inverted image of B image is subtracted from the visible image by the subtraction section. Thus, an area of an artery becomes clear and a visible image with improved visibility can be obtained.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus capable of clearly displaying an artery image with improved visibility.

  In recent years, a technique called near-infrared fluorescence imaging has been used for surgery. In this near-infrared fluorescence imaging, indocyanine green (ICG) as a fluorescent dye is injected into the affected area. When indocyanine green is irradiated with near infrared light of 600 to 850 nm (nanometers) as excitation light, indocyanine green emits fluorescence in the near infrared region having a peak at about 800 nm. This fluorescence is photographed with a camera capable of detecting near-infrared light, and the image is displayed on a display unit such as a liquid crystal display panel. According to this near-infrared fluorescence imaging, it is possible to observe blood vessels, lymph vessels, and the like existing at a depth of about 20 mm from the body surface.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a near-infrared fluorescence intensity distribution image obtained by irradiating an indocyanine green excitation light to a living organ to which indocyanine green is administered, and indocyanine green administration. Compared with the cancer lesion distribution image obtained by applying X-rays, nuclear magnetic resonance or ultrasound to the previous test organ, it is detected by the intensity distribution image of near-infrared fluorescence, A data collection method is disclosed in which data of a region that is not detected in a cancer lesion distribution image is collected as cancer secondary lesion region data.

  Further, Patent Document 2 alternately irradiates a subject to which an angiographic contrast agent is administered with excitation light and visible light, and alternately obtains a fluorescence image and a visible image irradiated with the excitation light by an imaging unit. In addition, a surgical support method is disclosed in which a fluorescent image is subjected to threshold processing with a predetermined threshold to extract a blood vessel image, and a composite image in which the visible image and the extracted blood vessel image are superimposed is created.

  Furthermore, Patent Document 3 discloses a blood vessel visualization device that can easily identify a vein and an artery by using near-infrared image data and visible image data.

International Publication No. 2009/139466 JP 2009-226072 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2014-246

  As described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, in an imaging apparatus that displays a contrast image, only a blood vessel into which a contrast agent has been introduced can be fluorescently displayed. For this reason, in such an imaging apparatus, it cannot be confirmed whether or not the contrast agent has reached the entire blood vessel. As described in Patent Document 3, various imaging devices for identifying blood vessels have been proposed, but even with such devices, it is relatively easy to visually recognize veins existing near the body surface. However, it is not easy to clearly recognize an artery present in a deep position in the body.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an imaging apparatus capable of improving the visibility of an artery and displaying it clearly.

  In the first invention, a visible light source that emits visible light toward the subject, a camera for photographing the subject, and an image obtained by inverting the arterial image from the visible image of the subject photographed by the camera are subtracted. A subtracting unit.

  In the second invention, the arterial image is a B image of the RGB images in the visible image.

  In the third invention, the arterial image is an image obtained by irradiating a subject with near-infrared light and capturing the near-infrared light reflected from the subject with the camera.

  In a fourth aspect of the invention, an excitation light source for irradiating the subject with near infrared light for exciting the fluorescent dye injected into the subject, and a visible image of the subject taken by the camera The image processing apparatus further includes a combining unit that generates a combined image by combining an image obtained by subtracting an image obtained by inverting the image and an image of near-infrared light reflected from the subject.

  According to the first to third inventions, it is possible to display the arterial image brightly by subtracting the image obtained by inverting the arterial image from the visible image, thereby improving the visibility of the artery and displaying it clearly. It becomes.

  According to the invention described in claim 4, by synthesizing the image obtained by subtracting the image obtained by inverting the image of the artery from the visible image and the image of the near infrared light reflected from the subject, both images are arterial. Unclearness can be compensated, and arteries can be expressed more clearly.

1 is a schematic diagram of an imaging apparatus according to the present invention. 2 is a perspective view of an illumination / photographing unit 12. FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of the illumination / photographing unit 12. It is a block diagram which shows the main control systems of the imaging device which concerns on this invention. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the process of improving the visibility of the image of an artery. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the process of improving the visibility of the image of the artery which concerns on other embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an imaging apparatus according to the present invention.

  The imaging apparatus includes an input unit 11 such as a touch panel, and includes a main body 10 including a control unit 30 and the like described later, an illumination / photographing unit 12 supported movably by an arm 13, a liquid crystal display panel, and the like. And a treatment table 16 on which a patient 17 is placed. The illumination / imaging unit 12 is not limited to the one supported by the arm 13, and may be carried by the surgeon in hand.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the illumination / imaging unit 12 described above. FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of the illumination / photographing unit 12.

  The illumination / photographing unit 12 includes a camera 21 capable of detecting near-infrared rays and visible light, a visible light source 22 including a large number of LEDs disposed on the outer peripheral portion of the camera 21, and an outer peripheral portion of the visible light source 22. The light source 23 for excitation which consists of many LED arrange | positioned, and the light source 24 for confirmation which consists of five LED arrange | positioned in many LED which comprises the visible light source 22 are provided. The visible light source 22 emits visible light. The excitation light source 23 irradiates near infrared light having a wavelength of 760 nm, which is excitation light for exciting indocyanine green. The confirmation light source 24 irradiates near infrared light having a wavelength of 850 nm, which approximates the wavelength of fluorescence generated from indocyanine green. In FIG. 3, some of the many LEDs constituting the visible light source 22 and the many LEDs constituting the excitation light source 23 are not shown.

  Here, 800 nm near-infrared light generated from indocyanine green cannot be visually confirmed. Under such circumstances, in order to check the operation of the camera 21 for photographing fluorescence, conventionally, a card-like or rod-like jig kneaded with indocyanine green is prepared, The operation of the camera 21 is confirmed by photographing the jig irradiated with the excitation light with the camera 21. For this reason, not only a dedicated jig is required, but also a complicated operation of preparing the jig and executing a photographing operation is required.

  For this reason, in the imaging apparatus according to the present invention, a confirmation light source 24 for irradiating near-infrared light of 850 nm that approximates the wavelength of the peak of fluorescence generated from indocyanine green is attached to the camera 21. A configuration is adopted in which the operation of the camera 21 is confirmed by turning on the light source 24 for confirmation. An image of an artery in the patient 17 is extracted using near-infrared light emitted from the confirmation light source 24.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a main control system of the imaging apparatus according to the present invention.

  This imaging apparatus is composed of a CPU that performs logical operations, a ROM that stores operation programs necessary for controlling the apparatus, a RAM that temporarily stores data during control, and the like, and a control unit that controls the entire apparatus 30. The control unit 30 includes a composition unit 36, an inversion unit 37, and a subtraction unit 38, which will be described later, and includes an image processing unit 31 that executes various image processes.

  The control unit 30 is connected to the input unit 11 and the display unit 14 described above. The control unit 30 is connected to an illumination / photographing unit 12 including a camera 21, a visible light source 22, an excitation light source 23, and a confirmation light source 24. Further, the control unit 30 is also connected to an image storage unit 33 that stores an image taken by the camera 21. The image storage unit 33 includes a near-infrared image storage unit 34 that stores a near-infrared image and a visible image storage unit 35 that stores a visible image. Instead of providing the near-infrared image storage unit 34 and the visible image storage unit 35, a composite image storage unit that stores an image obtained by combining the visible image and the near-infrared image may be provided.

  The operation when performing a surgical operation using the imaging apparatus according to the present invention will be described below. In the following description, a case where breast cancer surgery is performed on the patient 17 will be described.

  When performing an operation for breast cancer using the imaging apparatus according to the present invention, first, the confirmation light source 24 is turned on, and an image at that time is taken by the fluorescence sensor 52 in the camera 21. The confirmation light source 24 emits near-infrared light having a wavelength of 850 nm, which approximates the wavelength of fluorescence generated from indocyanine green. This near infrared light cannot be confirmed by human eyes. On the other hand, when near-infrared light having a wavelength of 850 nm is emitted from the light source for confirmation 24 and an image of this irradiation region is taken by the camera 21, when the camera 21 is operating normally, near-infrared light is emitted. An image of a region irradiated with is taken by the camera 21, and the image is displayed on the display unit 14. This makes it possible to easily check the operation of the camera 21.

  When the above preparation steps are completed, indocyanine green is injected into the breast of the patient 17 who is supine on the treatment table 16 by injection. Then, near infrared rays are emitted from the excitation light source 23 toward the subject including the affected part, and visible light is emitted from the visible light source 22. As the near infrared light emitted from the excitation light source 23, as described above, 760 nm near infrared light acting as excitation light for indocyanine green to emit fluorescence is employed. Thereby, indocyanine green generates fluorescence in the near infrared region having a peak at about 800 nm.

  Then, the vicinity of the affected part of the patient 17 is photographed by the camera 21. The camera 21 can detect near infrared light and visible light. The near-infrared image and visible image captured by the camera 21 are sent to the image processing unit 31 shown in FIG. The image processing unit 31 converts the near-infrared image and the visible image into image data that can be displayed on the display unit 14. The near-infrared image data is stored in the near-infrared image storage unit 34 in the image storage unit 33. The visible image data is stored in the visible image storage unit 35 of the image storage unit 33.

  The synthesizing unit 36 in the image processing unit 31 uses the near-infrared image data and the visible image data to create a synthesized image obtained by fusing the visible image and the near-infrared image. Then, the image processing unit 31 displays the near-infrared image, the visible image, and the composite image on the display unit 14 at the same time or selectively in divided regions.

  During this operation, there is a case where it is desired to check a blood vessel image in order to check whether or not the contrast medium reaches the entire blood vessel. In such a case, since the vein of the patient 17 exists at a position close to the body surface of the patient 17, the position can be confirmed also by a visible image or the like. On the other hand, since the artery exists at a deep position in the body of the patient 17, it is difficult to clearly recognize the image. In the imaging apparatus according to the present invention, a configuration is adopted in which the visibility of the artery image is improved by subtracting an image obtained by inverting the artery image from the visible image of the patient 17.

  FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a process of improving the visibility of an artery image.

  In order to improve the visibility of the arterial image, among the RGB pixel values of the visible image before injecting indocyanine green stored in the visible image storage unit 35, the arterial image is expressed in black. Use images. That is, the reverse image 37 in the image processing unit 31 shown in FIG. The subtracting unit 38 subtracts the reverse image of the B image from the visible image before indocyanine green is injected. As a result, the arterial region becomes bright and clear, and a visible image with improved arterial visibility can be obtained. At this time, an artery image may be colored and displayed. If necessary, a composite image may be generated by combining a near-infrared image with an image obtained by subtracting a reverse image of the B image from the visible image. In this case, arteries in which indocyanine green is not sufficiently flowing do not appear clearly in the near-infrared image, but it can be supplemented with a clear image of the artery by subtracting the reverse image of the B image from the visible image. it can. Conversely, even if there is a blurred portion of the artery in the image obtained by subtracting the reverse image of the B image from the visible image, it can be supplemented with an arterial image represented by a near-infrared image.

  FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a process of improving the visibility of an artery image according to another embodiment.

  In this embodiment, in order to improve the visibility of the artery image, a near-infrared image in which the artery image is expressed in black is used instead of the image B in the above-described embodiment. That is, in this embodiment, near infrared light having a wavelength of 850 nm is irradiated from the confirmation light source 24 to the affected part of the patient 17, and an image at that time is taken by the camera 21, and the near infrared image storage unit 34 is stored. Then, the near-infrared image stored in the near-infrared image storage unit 34 is inverted by the inversion unit 37 in the image processing unit 31 shown in FIG. Thereafter, the subtracting unit 38 subtracts the inverted image of the near-infrared image from the visible image before injecting indocyanine green. As a result, as in the above-described embodiment, the arterial region is bright and clear, and a visible image with improved arterial visibility can be obtained. If necessary, the synthesized image may be generated by synthesizing the near-infrared image with the image obtained by subtracting the inverted image of the near-infrared image.

  In the embodiment described above, a light source that emits near-infrared light having a wavelength of 760 nm is used as the excitation light source 23. However, as the excitation light source 23, excitation light is obtained by exciting indocyanine green. What irradiates near-infrared light of about 750 nm to 810 nm that can generate the light can be used.

In the embodiment described above, a light source for irradiating near infrared light having a wavelength of 850 nm is used as the light source for confirmation 24, but the light source for confirmation 24 is 800 nm that approximates the fluorescence generated from indocyanine green. What is necessary is just what can irradiate near near infrared rays, for example, what can irradiate near infrared rays with a wavelength of 810 nm or more is sufficient. More specifically, it may be near infrared light having a longer wavelength than the vicinity of 805 nm, which is the isosbestic absorption point of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO ₂ ) flowing in the artery and reduced hemoglobin (Hb) flowing in the vein.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Main body 11 Input part 12 Illumination / imaging | photography part 13 Arm 14 Display part 16 Treatment table 17 Patient 21 Camera 22 Visible light source 23 Light source for excitation 24 Light source for confirmation 30 Control part 31 Image processing part 33 Image storage part 34 Near infrared image memory | storage Unit 35 Visible image storage unit 36 Composition unit 37 Inversion unit 38 Subtraction unit

Claims (4)

A visible light source that emits visible light toward the subject;
A camera for photographing the subject;
A subtracting unit for subtracting an image obtained by inverting an image of an artery from a visible image of the subject photographed by the camera;
An imaging apparatus comprising: The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
The imaging apparatus, wherein the arterial image is a B image of the RGB images in the visible image. The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
The imaging device is an image in which the arterial image is an image obtained by irradiating a subject with near infrared light and capturing the near infrared light reflected from the subject with the camera. The imaging apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
An excitation light source that irradiates the subject with near infrared light for exciting the fluorescent dye injected into the subject;
A synthesizing unit that creates a synthesized image by synthesizing an image obtained by subtracting an image obtained by inverting an arterial image from a visible image of the subject photographed by the camera and an image of near infrared light reflected from the subject; ,
An imaging apparatus further comprising:

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