Imaging systems and methods for displaying fluorescence and visible images
An endoscopic video system and method using a camera with a single color image sensor, for example a CCD color image sensor, for fluorescence and color imaging and for simultaneously displaying the images acquired in these imaging modes at video rates in real time is disclosed. The tissue under investigation is illuminated continuously with fluorescence excitation light and is further illuminated periodically using visible light outside of the fluorescence excitation wavelength range. The illumination sources may be conventional lamps using filters and shutters, or may include light-emitting diodes mounted at the distal tip of the endoscope.
1. A method of visualizing a tissue of a subject, the method comprising:
illuminating the tissue with white-light and excitation light that excites fluorophors in the tissue, wherein the fluorophors emit fluorescence light to create a fluorescence image;
simultaneously receiving visible white-light image data and corresponding fluorescence image data of the tissue, the visible white-light image data and the fluorescence image data being captured or having been captured by an image capture device;
colorizing the visible white-light image data based on the fluorescence image data to generate a composite colorized image, wherein the composite colorized image comprises a plurality of differentiated color regions, the differentiated color regions corresponding to a change in fluorescence signal from the tissue, and wherein a brightness of the composite colorized image data is based on white-light image data and is independent of the fluorescence image data; and
displaying the composite colorized image.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the change in fluorescence signal is indicative of a change in a property of the tissue.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the property of the tissue is indicative of tissue health.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the property of the tissue comprises a pathological property.
5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the property of the tissue comprises a structural property.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein colorizing the visible white-light image data based on the fluorescence image data comprises modifying a color attribute of the visible white-light image data.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the visible white-light image data comprises desaturated image data.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the visible white-light image data comprises grayscale image data.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the visible white-light image data comprises luma image data.
10. A system for visualizing a tissue of a subject, the system comprising:
one or more light sources for illuminating the tissue;
one or more image sensors for simultaneously detecting a visible white-light image and a fluorescence image;
one or more processors configured to compute a composite colorized image using the detected visible white-light image and the detected fluorescence image, wherein the composite colorized image comprises a plurality of differentiated color regions, the differentiated color regions corresponding to a change in fluorescence signal from the tissue, and wherein a brightness of the composite colorized image data is based on white-light image data and is independent of the fluorescence image data; and
a display for displaying the composite colorized image.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the system is an endoscope system.
12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more image sensors comprise one or more CCD or CMOS image sensors.
13. The system of claim 10 , comprising a single sensor for detecting the white-light image and the fluorescence image.
14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the change in fluorescence signal is indicative of a change in a property of the tissue.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the property of the tissue is indicative of tissue health.
16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the property of the tissue comprises a pathological property.
17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the property of the tissue comprises a structural property.
18. The system of claim 10 , wherein the composite colorized image is computed by colorizing visible white-light image data based on fluorescence image data.
19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the visible white-light image data is colorized based on fluorescence image data by modifying a color attribute of the visible white-light image data based on the fluorescence image data.
20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the visible white-light image data comprises desaturated image data.
21. The system of claim 18 , wherein the visible white-light image data comprises luma image data.
22. The system of claim 18 , wherein the visible white-light image data comprises grayscale image data.
23. The method of claim 1 , further comprising administering a fluorescent dye to the subject comprising indocyanine green (ICG).