Method and apparatus for detecting malignancies in living tissue
US5808304A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 18, 1996 |
| Grant date | Sep 15, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 18, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01N21/4795
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
The most common method of determining whether a breast contains cancerous tissue utilizes ionizing radiation, i.e. x-rays, which possible have tissue damaging properties. It has been found that lasers can be used as a light source in a breast tissue transillumination process. However, due to the high scattering coefficient (or diffusing properties) of breast tissue, it is not possible to obtain images having good resolution using classical transillumination techniques, even when a laser is used as the light source. When passing through a diffusing medium, a laser pulse decomposes into three classes of photons, namely ballistic, snake-like and diffuse photons. In most practical situations, the ballistic photon portion of a laser pulse, which travels in a straight line, does not pass through the tissue, i.e. only snake-like and diffuse photons pass through the tissue. It is proposed by this invention to use both the snake-like and diffuse photons in a method involving time gating and multiple field of view techniques to obtain a more precise evaluation of the scattering coefficients, i.e. a map of the interior of a region of the sample, whereby the presence (or absence) of tumors is …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.