Real-time parathyroid imaging system
AssigneesPukyong National University Industryuniversity Cooperation Foundation, Unist (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology)
InventorsYeh-Chan Ahn, Sung Chul Bae
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to a real-time parathyroid imaging apparatus including: a light source including an excitation filter capable of exciting parathyroid glands; and a camera including an image sensor and an emission filter of which a transmissivity ratio between a visible light region and a near-infrared emission wavelength region is N:1 (here, N<1). Through the present invention, a system may be implemented whereby a surgeon may acquire, in real-time during an operation, an autofluorescence image of the parathyroid glands by using a near-infrared light source, and an auto focus function may be used, and visible light and near-infrared autofluorescence images may be simultaneously fused and acquired without having to turn off the lights in an operating room.
Claims4
A parathyroid imaging system comprising:
- a light source including an excitation filter for exciting parathyroid glands;
- and
- a camera including an emission filter of which a transmissivity ratio between a visible light region and a near-infrared emission wavelength region is N:1 where N is less than one, and an image sensor,
- wherein the emission filter is configured to include a first optical density (OD) region that is the visible light region, a second OD region that is a near-infrared excitation wavelength region, and a third OD region that is the near-infrared emission wavelength region,
- an OD value of the second OD region is greater than that of the first OD region in order to block the light of the light source, and
- the OD value of the first OD region is greater than that of the third OD region so that transmissivity of the near-infrared emission wavelength region is higher than that of the visible light region, and
- wherein said parathyroid imaging system is configured to simultaneously provide an autofluorescence image of said parathyroid glands' location and a visible light image of a surrounding tissue location that does not overlap with said parathyroid glands, from images obtained by said camera, and thereby to make it possible to easily identify a location of said parathyroid glands by said autofluorescence image through assistance of said visible light image of said surrounding tissue.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.