METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSOR AND DEVICE FOR OBSERVING AN OBJECT CONTAINING A BOLUS OF A FLUOROPHORE

摘要

The invention relates to a method, an image processor (26) and a medical observation device (1), such as a microscope or endoscope, for observing an object (4) containing a bolus of at least one fluorophore (12). The object is preferably live tissue comprising several types (16, 18, 20) of tissue. According to the method, a set (34) of component signals (36) is provided. Each component signal (36) represents a fluorescence intensity development of the fluorophore over time in a different type of tissue. A time series (8) of input frames (10) is accessed, one input frame after the other. The input frames represent electronically coded still images of the object at subsequent time. Each input frame contains at least one observation area (22) comprising at least one pixel (23). The following steps are carried out while the input frames of the time series are received: in the observation area of the current input frame of the time series, a fluorescent light intensity (I) is determined over at least one fluorescence emission wavelength (15) of the fluorophore; this fluorescent light intensity (I1) is joined with the fluorescence light intensities (In) of the observation area of preceding input frames of the time series to generate a time sequence (40) of fluorescent light intensities (I1, In) of the observation area; this time sequence is decomposed on in a preferably linear combination (72) of at least some of the component signals (36) of the set (34); and a new set (34) of component signals is provided which includes only those component signals which are present in the combination. An output frame (46) is generated, in which the observation area is assigned a color from a color space depending on the combination of component signals.