Device, method, and program for visualizing network of blood vessels of skin

A blood vessel visualizing method for visualizing a network of blood vessels of skin, the method comprising:

• a tomographic image acquiring step of acquiring a tomographic image of the skin by using optical coherence tomography;
• a blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates setting spatial coordinates on the acquired tomographic image, and among the spatial coordinates, identifying step of identifying a plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates in a blood vessel region included in the network of blood vessels on the acquired tomographic image of the skin, wherein optical coherence tomography intensity values of the identified plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates on the acquired tomographic image are within a range of blood vessel determination reference values;
• a virtual circle setting step of setting, a virtual circle having one of the identified plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates to present a center of the virtual circle and others of the identified plurality blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates around the one of the identified plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates, determining a blood vessel virtual radius of the virtual circle by increasing a radius extended from the center of the virtual circle until when or immediately before the radius of the virtual circle reaches a value at which a proportion of a number of the identified plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates in the virtual circle to a number of the spatial coordinates in the virtual circle starts to decrease;
• and
• a thickness display step of visually displaying thicknesses of the network of blood vessels by superimposing distinctions based on magnitudes of the blood vessel virtual radius respectively from the identified plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates onto the image of the network of blood vessels.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to implement:

• a function of setting spatial coordinates on a tomographic image of skin acquired by using optical coherence tomography, and among the spatial coordinates, identifying a plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates in a blood vessel region included in a network of blood vessels on the acquired tomographic image, wherein optical coherence tomography intensity values of the identified plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates on the acquired tomographic image are within a range of blood vessel determination reference values;
• a function of setting, a virtual circle having one of the identified plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates to present a center of the virtual circle and others of the identified plurality blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates, determining a blood vessel virtual radius of the virtual circle by increasing a radius extended from the center of the virtual circle until when or immediately before the radius of the virtual circle reaches a value at which a proportion of as a number of the identified plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates in the virtual circle to a number of the spatial coordinates in the virtual circle starts to decrease;
• and
• a function of visually displaying thicknesses of the network of blood vessels by superimposing distinctions based on magnitudes of the blood vessel virtual radius respectively from the identified plurality of blood-vessel-corresponding-coordinates onto the image of the network of blood vessels.