Identifying the major blood vessels during laparoscopic surgeries is important to prevent injuries to the vessel that could complicate the procedure. Current mitigation strategies involve the use of fluorescence or contrast dyes, but present challenges such as patient preparation time, potential adverse reactions, and the need for specialized imaging modalities. In this study, we explore the potential of Near InfraRed (NIR) bands for dye-free major blood vessel identification, the generation of a False-RGB image with NIR bands that closely resemble the RGB image of tissues, and the enhancement of this image using a proposed contrast enhancement technique. Ten multispectral images in the NIR spectrum were captured, and a False-RGB image was generated using the 702 nm, 821 nm, and 833 nm bands as the red, green, and blue channels, respectively. The contrast enhancement algorithm successfully increased the vein contrast with an average gain of 1.5, as measured by the Michelson contrast ratio.
Gastrointestinal (GI) tract endoscopy plays a pivotal role in the detection of a spectrum of malignancies, including superficial lesions and vascular irregularities. While conventional White Light Imaging (WLI) delivers clear GI tract imagery, it often lacks the capability to adequately enhance the visualization of vascular structures, essential for precise disease diagnosis. Although Narrow Band Imaging (NBI) enhances the visualization of superficial vessels, its availability is not universal across endoscopy systems. In contexts where advanced imaging techniques like NBI are absent, enhancing visualization under white light illumination holds promise for improving diagnostic accuracy. An innovative approach involving approximate spectral color estimation has been proposed in this paper, which relies on the relative proportions of red, green, and blue (RGB) components in a spectral color to infer the spectral component from an RGB image. By applying a composite of three spectral estimates to the RGB channels, we generate pseudo-colored images that accentuate structural details. Enhanced images using diverse spectral estimate combinations were captured from two patients under both WLI and NBI and analyzed for visualizing various GI tract structures. The enhanced images show clear improvement when compared to the original image for the same region. The comparison of enhanced images captured under the two different light sources shows relatively higher improvement for enhancement under WLI compared to the predominantly monochromatic images yielded by NBI. The findings underscore that our proposed method generates a spectrum of distinctly colored images, in contrast to the predominantly monochromatic images yielded by NBI. This empowers clinicians to opt for their preferred color combinations, in turn simplifying the diagnostic process.
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