Medical examination installation with improved image contrast

US4922916A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Siemens Aktiengesellschaft · DE

Inventors

• Helmut Ermert · Simmerath, DE
• Manfred Pfeiler · Erlangen, DE
• Karl Barth · Hochspeyer, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 26, 1988
• Grant date: May 8, 1990
• Expiry date: Sep 26, 2008

Classification

• Technology area (CPC A): Human Necessities
• CPC primary: A61B17/2256
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A medical examination installation for generating images of a patient for visual display has a mechanical oscillator which vibrates at least a portion of the patient, of which an image is to be obtained, during the exposure time. The image is obtained with a pick-up device at an image frequency, and the mechanical vibration may be matched to, or differ from, the image frequency. The image is then subjected to image subtraction techniques, or selective filtering, which permits body parts which differ in terms of mechanical vibration properties from the surrounding tissue, for example calculi, to be clearly imaged, particularly the borders of those body parts.