PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a diagnosis support apparatus appropriately perform detection of a lesion part by taking into consideration whether or not there is contact between an optical probe and the surface of the inner wall portion at a time of measurement, when automatically detecting a lesion part based on tomographic information by performing OCT measurement with respect to an inner wall portion within the biliary tract, the pancreatic duct, or the like that has an epithelial layer on a surface thereof such as, for example.SOLUTION: A scattered light intensity signal of the inner wall portin of a living organism that is acquired by OCT measurement of the biliary tract or the pancreatic duct is differentiated with respect to a depth direction (step S300), and the range of a sheath of an OCT probe (position of the outer circumferential face) is detected based on the differential signal (step S302). It is determined whether or not the sheath and the surface of the inner wall portion of the living organism are in contact, according to whether a differential signal having a large value is outside the outer circumferential face of the sheath (step S304). When automatically detecting, as a lesion part, a region at which a thickness of the epithelial layer of the inner wall portion is a value that is greater than a predetermined threshold value, the threshold value is changed in accordance with the contact region or non-contact region of the sheath (steps S306 and S308).COPYRIGHT: (C)2012,JPO&INPIT【課題】上皮層を表面に有する胆道、膵管等の内壁部に対してOCT計測により取得された断層情報に基づいて病変部を自動で検出する場合において、測定時における光プローブと内壁部の表面との接触の有無を考慮して適切に病変部の検出を行える診断支援装置を提供する。【解決手段】胆道・膵管のOCT計測により得られた生体内壁部の散乱光強度信号が深さ方向に対して微分され(ステップS300)、その微分信号に基づいて、OCTプローブのシースの範囲(外周面の位置)が検出される(ステップS302)。そして、シースの外周面外側において大きな値の微分信号が存在するか否かによってシースと生体内壁部の表面とが接触しているか否かが判定される(ステップS304)。内壁部の上皮層の厚みが所定の閾値より大きい領域を病変部として自動検出する際に、その閾値がシースの接触領域か非接触領域かによって変更される(ステップS306、S308)。【選択図】図38
