A medical imaging system is described that comprises an heating element configured to apply at least one heating pattern element to a material to locally heat the material; a sensor configured to capture the position of the heated material a predetermined time after the application of the heating pattern element; and circuitry configured to determine the change of the heating pattern applied to the material based upon the captured position of the heated material after the predetermined time.

A photothermal treatment device includes: irradiation means that irradiates a lesion tissue in a body cavity with heating light; a thermo-endoscope including endoscopic imaging means that images the inside of the body cavity and thermographic imaging means that images a surface temperature of a tissue in the body cavity as a thermal image; and control means (control personal computer (PC)) that controls an output and an irradiation time of the irradiation means based on temperature information of the thermal image obtained from the thermographic imaging means.

A surgical vision system for imaging heat capacity and cooling rate of tissue has an infrared source configured to provide infrared light to tissue, the infrared light sufficient to heat tissue, and an infrared camera configured to provide images of tissue at infrared wavelengths. The system also has an image processing system configured to determine, from the infrared images of tissue, a cooling or heating rate at pixels of the images of tissue at infrared wavelengths and to display images derived from the cooling rate at the pixels.

One aspect of the invention relates to a method for intraoperative assessment of parathyroid gland viability in a surgery. The method includes diffusing a beam of light onto a tissue surface of a parathyroid gland of a patient to illuminate the tissue surface; acquiring images of the illuminated tissue surface, where each of the acquired images includes a speckle pattern; and processing the acquired images to obtain speckle contrast images for the intraoperative assessment of parathyroid gland viability.

Arrangements and methods are provided for obtaining information associated with an anatomical sample. For example, at least one first electro-magnetic radiation can be provided to the anatomical sample so as to generate at least one acoustic wave in the anatomical sample. At least one second electro-magnetic radiation can be produced based on the acoustic wave. At least one portion of at least one second electro-magnetic radiation can be provided so as to determine information associated with at least one portion of the anatomical sample. In addition, the information based on data associated with the second electro-magnetic radiation can be analyzed. The first electro-magnetic radiation may include at least one first magnitude and at least one first frequency. The second electro-magnetic radiation can include at least one second magnitude and at least one second frequency. The data may relate to a first difference between the first and second magnitudes and/or a second difference between the first and second frequencies. The second difference may be approximately between −100 GHz and 100 GHz, excluding zero.

This invention relates to an apparatus and a method for measuring whether organic matter is present or whether or not organisms (cells or tissue) are alive using infrared absorption spectroscopic analysis. The measurement apparatus of the invention includes an infrared light source for radiating infrared rays on a sample, an infrared detection unit for detecting the infrared rays transmitted or reflected from the sample, and a determination unit for identifying an amide infrared absorption peak of the sample using the detected infrared rays and for determining whether organic matter is present or whether organisms are alive or not in the sample using the identified amide infrared absorption peak. In this invention, a reagent is not used, simple measurement is performed, quantification is feasible, and the presence or absence of cells or tissues and changes in the life and death can be consecutively measured for the same sample.

An endoscope system includes an image pickup section that picks up, light included in return light generated according to radiation of excitation light, and reference light, the return light including the fluorescence, light in a first wavelength band, and light in a second wavelength band; an observation image generation section that generates an observation image using first through third image signals obtained by picking up the return light; and a control section that controls the observation image generation section such that the observation image is generated, by causing the first image signal to be assigned to a green component, and by causing one image signal having a relatively large signal value, between the second image signal and the third image signal, to be assigned to a red component and another image signal having a relatively small signal value to be assigned to a blue component and the green component.

Exemplary apparatus for method for forming at least one spectral encoding endoscopy configuration. For example, it is possible to modify a spacer configuration and an lens optics configuration to have respective predetermined lengths, and also to modify a dispersive optics configuration to have a further predetermined length. Further, the modified spacer and modified lens optics configurations can be attached to one another to form a combined spacer-lens optics configuration. The modified dispersive optics configuration can be attached to a substrate to form to form a grating substrate configuration. Additionally, the combined spacer-lens optics configuration can be connected to an optical fiber, and the modified attached dispersed optics configuration can be connected to the modified attached lens optics configuration to form the spectral encoding endoscopy configuration(s) which can extends along a particular axis. The dispersive optics configuration can be modified to be at a predetermined angle with respect to the particular axis.

Systems and methods for measuring and monitoring intracavitary tissue temperature. The system may include a catheter shaft with a circuit board disposed therein, the circuit board having an array of sensors disposed thereon. The catheter shaft may have an opening and an expandable structure surrounding the opening to provide a field of view of the intracavitary tissue for the array of sensors through the opening. The system may include a software-based programming system run on a computer such that a clinician may review information indicative of temperature of the intracavitary tissue, and be alerted if the temperature exceeds a predetermined threshold.

A system is provided that furnishes expert procedural guidance based upon patient-specific data gained from surgical instruments incorporating sensors on the instrument's working surface, one or more reference sensors placed about the patient, sensors implanted before, during or after the procedure, the patient's personal medical history, and patient status monitoring equipment. Embodiments include a system having a surgical instrument with a sensor for generating a signal indicative of a property of a subject tissue of the patient, which signal is converted into a current dataset and stored. A processor compares the current dataset with other previously stored datasets, and uses the comparison to assess a physical condition of the subject tissue and/or to guide a procedure being performed on the tissue.