[Initial clinical experience with video-cystoscope].

Abstract

The endoscopic image processing system which has a very small change coupled device (CCD) at the distal tip of an endoscope, can give us a quite different imaging information from the conventional optical endoscopes, of which the main functions were just to "see inside the human body". The advantage of this endoscopic image processing system has been well recognized but, since the scope diameter could not be made smaller due to the size limitations of the CCD chip itself, the system has not been utilized in the field of Urology. In cooperation with Olympus Optical Co., we have studied a system called Urological Video Information System (UVIS) in order to utilize the image processing system for Urology. In our system a special light source with RGB light output is utilized together with a conventional optical cystoscope and a video converter is connected to the eyepiece of the scope in order to observe endoscopic images on the monitor. Endoscopic images can be stored in an image filing system when necessary. The image quality of UVIS is inferior to that of the conventional cystoscopes at the moment and there are several other technical problems to solve but, as witnessed in the field of Gastroenterology, it is expected that this kind of electronic system will become much more important in the future. This report covers the current problems and some considerations of them as an initial study.