Excitation light illuminating probe, video endoscope system, and video endoscope for fluorescence observation
AssigneePENTAX Corporation
InventorTetsuya Nakamura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A probe comprising a long tube of generally cylindrical shape, a cap for sealing a distal end of the tube, a pair of light emitting diodes fixed to inside of a recess of the cap, two systems of leads connected to the light emitting diodes, respectively, and a lid for sealing the recess of the cap. When the two systems of leads are supplied with drive currents alternately, the light emitting diodes emit excitation light for exciting tissue of a living body to emit self fluorescence and visible light for illuminating the subject, respectively and alternately.
Claims7
An illuminating probe for fluorescence observation comprising:
- a body made of a long flexible member;
- a tip member made from hard material and attached to a distal end of said body;
- a light emitting device arranged on said tip member to emit excitation light having such a wavelength as to excite tissue of a living body to emit self fluorescence;
- and
- a plurality of power supply lines connected to respective electrodes of said light emitting device and led through entire length of said body.
A video endoscope system for fluorescence observation comprising:
- a video endoscope having an insert part capable of being inserted into a body cavity, through which a forceps channel opening at its distal end is led, an objective optical system forming an image of a subject based on a visible component of light emitting through the distal end of said insert part and then reflecting from a surface of said subject, and an image pickup device picking up an image of said subject formed by said objective optical system to output an image signal;
- an illuminating probe for fluorescence observation having a body made of a flexible member having an outside diameter smaller than said forceps channel and a length greater than said forceps channel, a tip member made from hard material and attached to a distal end of said body, a light emitting device arranged on said tip member to emit excitation light having such a wavelength as to excite tissue of a living body in order to cause the tissue to emit self fluorescence, and a plurality of power supply lines connected to respective electrodes of said light emitting device and led through entire length of said body;
- a power supply unit for supplying said power supply lines of said illuminating probe with a drive current for making said light emitting device to emit said excitation light;
- a signal processing unit distiguishing and processing an image signal output in a period where said subject is irradiated with said excitation light, out of image signals successively output from said image pickup device;
- and
- a display receiving an image signal processed by said signal processing unit to display an image based on the image signal.
A video endoscope for fluorescence observation comprising:
- an insert part capable of being inserted into a body cavity;
- a light emitting device arranged at a distal end of said insert part to emit excitation light having such a wavelength as to excite tissue of a living body in order to cause the tissue to emit self fluorescence;
- a plurality of power supply lines connected to respective electrodes of said light emitting device and led through entire length of said insert part;
- an objective optical system forming an image of a subject from a visible component of light emitting through the distal end of said insert part and then reflecting from a surface of said subject;
- and
- an image pickup device picking up an image of said subject formed by said objective optical system to output an image signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.