Abstract: The invention provides a device and process for real-time screening of areas that can be identified as suspicious either through image segmentation utilizing image processing techniques or through treatment with an exogenous fluorescent marker that selectively localizes in abnormal areas. If screening detects a suspicious area, then the invention allows acquiring of autofluorescence images at multiple selected narrow differentiating spectral bands so that a “virtual biopsy” can be obtained to differentiate abnormal areas from normal areas based on differentiating portions of autofluorescence spectra. Full spatial information is collected, but autofluorescence data is collected only at the selected narrow spectral bands, avoiding the collection of full spectral data, so that the speed of analysis is increased.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 12, 2003
Date of Patent:
January 13, 2004
Assignee:
STI Medical Systems, Inc.
Inventors:
Rolf Holger Wolters, Joseph Allen Sweat, Michael James Deweert, Robert Benton Seiple, Jr., David George Shibasaki Walton
Abstract: The invention provides a device and process for real-time screening of areas that can be identified as suspicious either through image segmentation utilizing image processing techniques or through treatment with an exogenous fluorescent marker that selectively localizes in abnormal areas. If screening detects a suspicious area, then the invention allows acquiring of autofluorescence images at multiple selected narrow differentiating spectral bands so that a “virtual biopsy” can be obtained to differentiate abnormal areas from normal areas based on differentiating portions of autofluorescence spectra. Full spatial information is collected, but autofluorescence data is collected only at the selected narrow spectral bands, avoiding the collection of full spectral data, so that the speed of analysis is increased.
Type:
Application
Filed:
March 12, 2003
Publication date:
August 21, 2003
Applicant:
STI MEDICAL SYSTEMS, INC.
Inventors:
Rolf Holger Wolters, Joseph Allen Sweat, Michael James Deweert, Robert Benton Seiple, David George Shibasaki Walton