[OPTICAL REVIEW Vol. 10, No. 4 (2003) 211-215]
© 2003 The Optical Society of Japan
Endoscopic Observation of Tissue by Narrowband Illumination
Kazuhiro GONO1,2, Kenji YAMAZAKI1, Nobuyuki DOGUCHI1, Tetsuo NONAMI1, Takashi OBI2, Masahiro YAMAGUCHI2, Nagaaki OHYAMA3, Hirohisa MACHIDA4, Yasushi SANO4, Shigeaki YOSHIDA4, Yasuo HAMAMOTO5 and Takao ENDO5
1Olympus Optical Co., Ltd., Ishikawa-cho, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo 192-8507, Japan
2Imaging Sciences and Engineering Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuda-cho, Midoriku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 226-8503, Japan
3Frontier Collaborative Research Center, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Kanagawa 226-8503, Japan
4Dep. of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy, National Cancer Center Hospital East, 6-5-1 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba 277-8577, Japan
5First Department of Internal Medicine, Sapporo Medical University, S-1, W-16, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 060-8543, Japan
(Received February 20, 2003; Accepted May 14, 2003)
We propose a new illumination method for a medical endoscope: narrow band imaging (NBI), in which the spectral bandwidth of the filtered light is narrowed. To confirm how the spectral specifications of the filtered light influence a reproduced image, an experiment was conducted observing the endoscopic images of the back mucosa of a human tongue. In addition, the effect of NBI on endoscopic images was investigated through preliminary clinical tests in colonoscopy and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. It has been shown that NBI can enhance the capillary pattern and the crypt pattern on the mucosa. These patterns are useful features for diagnosing an early cancer.
Key words: video endoscope, tissue imaging, blood vessel, narrowband illumination, clinical test