Endoscope System Lesion Severity Evaluation Using Blood Vessel Separation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional endoscope systems struggle to accurately evaluate the severity of lesions by distinguishing blood vessel images from other tissue images, leading to insufficient correlation with subjective and histologic evaluation results.
Innovation Solution
The endoscope system employs a light source that emits first and second lights with different wavelength bands to capture distinct blood vessel images, separating shallow and deep blood vessel features, and uses image processing to calculate the severity of lesions based on these features.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the endoscope system evaluates the entire image including blood vessel images, then the evaluation covers the complete tissue area, but the evaluation accuracy decreases because blood vessel images interfere with lesion severity assessment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes blood vessel images from the endoscopic image before performing lesion severity evaluation. The image processing unit detects blood vessel regions and excludes them from the evaluation calculation, allowing the system to assess only the relevant tissue areas without interference from blood vessels that do not reflect lesion severity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the endoscopic image into different components: blood vessel regions and non-blood vessel tissue regions. By separating these elements, the system can independently evaluate the lesion severity in the relevant tissue areas while excluding the blood vessel portions, thus improving measurement precision without sacrificing comprehensive coverage.
2Measurement precision
If the system uses multiple wavelength lights to capture distinct blood vessel images, then the blood vessel detection accuracy improves, but the device complexity and processing load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the wavelength parameter of illumination light to differentiate blood vessel images from surrounding tissue. By using specific wavelength bands where blood vessels exhibit distinct optical characteristics, the system achieves accurate blood vessel detection and separation without requiring overly complex multi-spectral or hyperspectral imaging systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for accurate evaluation of lesion severity by effectively distinguishing blood vessel images from other tissue images, improving correlation with clinical and histologic evaluations.
Implementation Method 1
a light source device configured to emit illumination light
Implementation Method 2
an image acquisition unit that images reflected light from the object by an image sensor and acquires a color image
Data Source
AI summary
An endoscope system comprising: a light source device configured to emit illumination light; an electronic endoscope; a processor that includes an image processing unit; and a monitor. The image processing unit includes: a detection unit configured to generate a first blood vessel detection image and a second blood vessel detection image; a separation unit configured to separate the first blood vessel detection image and the second blood vessel detection image into a shallow blood vessel image and a deep blood vessel image; a feature amount calculation unit configured to calculate a shallow blood vessel feature amount regarding the shallow blood vessel image and a deep blood vessel feature amount regarding the deep blood vessel image; and an evaluation unit configured to calculate severity of a lesion of a biological tissue by using the shallow blood vessel feature amount and the deep blood vessel feature amount.