Fujinon Corporation

Fujifilm Corporation

Shinichi Kohno

Daisuke Ayame

Hiroshi Fujita

An ultrasound endoscope having an ultrasound transducer mounted on a rigid tip end section at the distal end of an elongated endoscopic insert section, on the front side of a inclined casing wall section in which illumination windows and an optical image pickup assembly are fitted. For protrusion of a medical instrument into a body cavity, an instrument outlet of a biopsy channel is opened in a casing of the rigid tip end section in an obliquely upward direction from behind the ultrasound transducer. As far as a proximal end of the rigid tip end section, the biopsy channel is constituted by a flexible tube which is extended in the axial direction of the insert section and joined by way of a curved connecting pipe with a terminal passage which is formed internally of a casing of the rigid tip end section and inclined relative to the longitudinal axis of the latter. The instrument outlet is opened in a flat top surface of a plateau which is provided on the casing of the rigid tip end section on the rear side of the ultrasound transducer, the flat top surface of said plateau being located at a level lower than a top end the ultrasound transducer and the illumination windows fitted in the inclined casing wall section.

Ultrasound endoscope

An endoscope comprises: an insertion portion to be inserted into a body cavity; an operation portion provided continuously from a proximal end side of the insertion portion; and a cylinder in which a gas to be fed to the distal end of the insertion portion is compressed and filled, the cylinder being detachably attached to the operation portion.

Endoscope with air and water feeding means

An endoscope comprises: an insertion portion to be inserted into a body cavity; an operation portion continuously provided from a proximal end side of the insertion portion; and a suction section that performs suction from an distal end of the insertion portion, wherein the suction section comprises: a cylinder in which a gas is compressed and filled; a nozzle unit that generates a negative pressure inside the nozzle unit by jetting out the gas in the cylinder; and a liquid receiver tank communicated with the distal end of the insertion portion, the negative pressure inside the nozzle unit being transmitted to the liquid receiver tank.

Endoscope with suctioning means

An ultrasonic endoscope comprising an insertion portion including a distal hard portion. The insertion portion comprises an ultrasonic transducer arranged in the distal hard portion and a treatment equipment lead-out hole, a slant surface on which an endoscopic viewing section is formed, the slant surface being provided in a position rear of the treatment equipment lead-out hole and a balloon removably arranged in a fit area on the ultrasonic transducer. The distal hard portion comprises a balloon-fit groove between an arrangement region of the ultrasonic transducer and an opening of the treatment equipment lead-out hole. The balloon has an end including a retaining ring that fits in the balloon-fit groove. The distal hard portion further comprises a treatment equipment guide member that slidably guides the treatment equipment across an arrangement area of the balloon-fit groove and up to a position on a beginning side of a scanning range of the ultrasonic transducer.

Ultrasonic endoscope

An endoscope apparatus used in combination with a near infrared light irradiation unit that irradiates near infrared light on a target irradiation section. White light and the infrared light are irradiated on a target observation area including the target irradiation section. The imaging means spectroscopically images a reflected light image of the target observation area, which is outputted as a spectral image signal. The storage section includes estimated matrix data. The IR image signal generation means generates an IR image signal constituted by an estimated value of reflected light intensity of the near infrared light by performing a matrix operation on the spectral image signal using the estimated matrix data and spectral matrix data of the near infrared light. The color image signal generation means generates a color image signal based on the spectral image signal and the IR image signal.

Electronic endoscope apparatus and program

An ultrasonic endoscope comprises an insertion portion including: an angle portion; a hard distal portion; an endoscopic observation unit comprising a lighting portion and an observation portion; and an ultrasonic test unit comprising an ultrasonic transducer constituting an ultrasonic test unit, wherein the hard distal portion includes: a distal end main body including an entire portion whereat the ultrasonic transducer is attached; an observation portion block that includes a portion whereat the observation portion is attached and that is separably coupled with the distal end main body; and an elevator block that is securely held between the distal end main body and the observation portion block by engaging the distal end main body and the observation portion block, and that comprises the elevator, and wherein the distal end main body, the observation portion block and the elevator block are assembled so as to be capable of being disassembled.

An endoscope comprises: an insertion portion that is to be inserted into a coelom; a treatment instrument elevation support, pivotally provided at a distal end of the insertion portion, that is used to guide a treatment instrument introduced at the distal end; and an observation section that obtains an image observed at the distal end, wherein, when the treatment instrument elevation support is reclined, part of the treatment instrument elevation support is included in the image obtained by the observation section.

Endoscope

An optical device comprises: a liquid container that contains water-based liquid and oil-based liquid that are different in refractive index from each other and immiscible with each other to have respective optical-transmission properties so that light can transmit in a predetermined optical-axis direction; a coat film that covers at least part of an inner surface of the liquid container and has a hydrophilic/hydrophobic property changing with temperature; and a temperature regulator that regulates temperature of the coat film.

Optical device, optical unit and imager

A rigid tip end section which is connected to an angle section at the fore distal end of an insertion instrument of an ultrasound endoscope is housed in a casing which can be split into a main casing and a separable head block to facilitate maintenance and service of internal component parts of the rigid tip end section. An ultrasound transducer is accommodated in a front side portion of the main casing, while endoscopic observation means including an illumination means and an optical image pickup means are fitted in an inclined wall rising obliquely upward on the rear side of the ultrasound transducer. An outlet opening of a biopsy channel outlet passage is located between the ultrasound transducer and the endoscopic observation means. The main casing is adapted to accommodate the ultrasound transducer and its wiring, while the separable head block is adapted to accommodate at least part of component parts of the endoscopic observation means. The main casing and the separable head block are joined with each other through joint wall portions provided along split lines at the opposite lateral sides and at the front side thereof. A foremost one of angle rings of the angle section is detachably fitted on base end portions of the main casing and separable head block to retain these parts in a fixedly connected state.

Specularly reflected light from a convergence position on an object surfaceenters a second critical-angle prism, another prism, and a first critical-angle prismof a parallel beam selection optical systemin this order as a parallel beam traveling along the optical axis. The critical-angle prismshave critical angles of 45 degrees with respect to the wavelength of the light beam. Light beams other than the parallel light beam are removed at oblique surfacesa,a of the critical-angle prisms, thereby allowing only the parallel light beam to exit as a regular light beam. This parallel beam is formed into a convergent light by a collimator lens, reflected by a half prismand converged on an image pickup surface of an image pickup device. In this way, unnecessary noise light can be removed without placing a pin hole plate such as that placed before the image pickup plane in a confocal microscope.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Shinichi Kohno