PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To precisely and highly reliably determine melanin in a viable tissue without injuring the viable tissue.SOLUTION: A melanin distribution visualizing method is the method for visualizing a melanin distribution by allowing the attenuation curve of auto-fluorescence in melanin existing in the viable tissue to approach a secondary attenuation curve through the use of a device, which planarly irradiates the prescribed depth of the viable tissue with a laser beam by planar scanning, and receives the auto-fluorescence from the tissue, and then, determining coefficients &tau1 and &tau2 concerning a fluorescent life and coefficients A1 and A2 concerning amplitude with respect to the fluorescent life. The method is characterized by setting 12-33 thresholds in A1/A2, and determining the fluorescence exceeding the thresholds to be the fluorescence caused by melanin.COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT【課題】生体組織を傷つけずに精度よくかつ信頼性の高い生体組織中のメラニンの判別を提供する。【解決手段】生体組織の所定深度に対してレーザー光を平面的に走査させて照射し該組織からの自家蛍光を受光する装置を用い、生体組織に存在するメラニンの自家蛍光の減衰曲線を2次減衰曲線に近似して、蛍光寿命に係る係数τ1及びτ2と、蛍光寿命に対する振幅に係る係数A1及びA2を決定してメラニン分布を可視化する方法であって、A1/A2比に12~33の閾値を設け、当該閾値を超える蛍光をメラニンに起因する蛍光と判別することを特徴とする、生体組織のメラニン分布可視化方法。【選択図】図1
