A METHOD FOR THE ESTIMATION OF THE HEMOGLOBIN DISTRIBUTION GASTROSCOPIC IMAGES

The assessment of blood flow in the gastrointestinal mucosa could be a useful indicator for tile diagnosis and treatment of several diseases , such as ulcers, gastritis, colitis or early cancer. The quantity of blood flow is roughly estimated by computing the spatial hemoglobin di stribution in the mucosa. The method presented here enables a practica l realization by calculating approximately the hemoglobin concentratio n based on a spectrophotometric analysis of endoscopic true-color imag es, which are recorded during routine examinations. A system model bas ed on the reflectance spectroscopic law of Kubelka-Munk is derived, wh ich enables an estimation of the hemoglobin concentration by means of the color values of the images. Additionally, a transformation of the color values is developed, in order to improve the luminance independe nce. Applying this transformation and estimating the hemoglobin concen tration for each pixel of interest, the hemoglobin distribution can be computed. The results obtained are mostly independent of luminance. A n initial validation of the method is made by a quantitative estimatio n of the reproducibility.