48 results about "X ray mammography" patented technology

A method and system for acquiring, processing, storing, and displaying x-ray mammograms Mp tomosynthesis images Tr representative of breast slices, and x-ray tomosynthesis projection images Tp taken at different angles to a breast, where the Tr images are reconstructed from Tp images

An optical localization fiber 20 is provided suitable for preoperative localization of soft tissue lesions by x-ray mammography, CT, MRI, ultrasonography, or nuclear medicine. A hook 28 is carried by the optical fiber for retaining the fiber in soft tissue. The tip 26 of the optical fiber is visible through the soft tissue when the proximal end of the optical fiber is attached to a light source 170. Other embodiments include clad or coated 42 optical fibers, bundled optical fibers 156, hooks which are metallic 82, braided 66, and multiple 128, and a helix 162.

A method and apparatus for detecting radiation including x-ray, gamma ray, and particle radiation for radiographic imaging, and nuclear medicine and x-ray mammography in particular, and material composition analysis are described. A detection system employs fixed or configurable arrays of one or more detector modules comprising detector arrays which may be electronically manipulated through a computer system. The detection system, by providing the ability for electronic manipulation, permits adaptive imaging. Detector array configurations include familiar geometries, including slit, slot, plane, open box, and ring configurations, and customized configurations, including wearable detector arrays, that are customized to the shape of the patient. Conventional, such as attenuating, rigid geometry, and unconventional collimators, such as x-ray optic, configurable, Compton scatter modules, can be selectively employed with detector modules and radiation sources. The components of the imaging chain can be calibrated or corrected using processes of the invention. X-ray mammography and scintimammography are enhanced by utilizing sectional compression and related imaging techniques.

Apparatus for compressing tissue to be scanned for medical imaging is provided. The apparatus may comprise a compression membrane and a tensioning apparatus coupled to the membrane to apply a tensile force to the membrane to place the membrane in a taut condition during an imaging process. In one exemplary application that combines ultrasound scanning with X-ray mammography, the compressing apparatus enables accurate, reproducible ultrasound images reducing distortion and attenuation, which may otherwise be introduced as a consequence of such a combination of imaging processes.

X-ray mammography has been the standard for breast cancer screening for three decades, but offers poor statistical reliability; it also requires a radiologist for interpretation, employs ionizing radiation, and is expensive. The combination of multiple independent tests, performed effectively at the same time and co-registered, can produce substantially more reliable detection performance than that of the individual tests. The multi-sensor approach offers greatly improved reliability for detection of early breast tumors, with few false positives, and also can be designed to support machine decision, thus enabling screening by general practitioners and clinicians; it avoids ionizing radiation, and can ultimately be relatively inexpensive.

Methods and arrangement for providing digital x-ray mammography image acquisition by means of an X-ray system that includes acquiring image data by irradiating an object, such as a human breast, automatically by the system analyzing the acquired image data with respect to presence of motion blur, indicating whether motion blur is present.

A compact and mobile gantry for 3-dimensional Application Specific Emission and/or Transmission Tomography (ASETT) imaging of the breast in single photon or coincidence emission modes, and single photon, or coincidence, or x-ray transmission modes. While the ASETT gantry was designed, built and evaluated for imaging metabolically active lesions in the pendant breast, it can also be used to image other organs and objects. This system overcomes physical constraints associated with imaging a pendulous breast in prone patients, while simultaneously satisfying sampling criteria for sufficient data collection in the pendulous breast reference frame. When combined with an offset cone-beam tomographic x-ray transmission imaging system, this dual modality ASETT system could provide simultaneous and coregistered structural and functional information about large or dense breasts, breasts with indeterminate x-ray mammography, and could also be used to accurately 3-dimensionally guide biopsy or surgical resection. Moreover, with the offset beam orientation, the transmission system is designed to have a variable FOV and minimize overall absorbed breast dose.

An x-ray breast imaging system comprising a compression paddle in which the compression paddle comprises a front wall and a bottom wall. The front wall is configured to be adjacent and face a chest wall of a patient during imaging and the bottom wall configured to be adjacent a length of a top of a compressed breast. The bottom wall extends away from the patient's chest wall, wherein the bottom wall comprises a first portion and a second portion such that the second portion is between the front wall and the first portion. The first portion is generally non- coplanar to the second portion, wherein the compression paddle is movable along a craniocaudal axis. The x-ray breast imaging system also comprises a non-rigid jacket releasably secured to the compression paddle, the non-rigid jacket positioned between the compression paddle and the patient.

An imaging method for microcalcification displays microcalcification distribution by acquiring and overlapping a photoacoustic image of microcalcification and an ultrasonic image of tissue. The image acquired by the present invention, in comparison to images acquired by ultrasonic and X-ray mammography, has advantages in no speckle noises, higher optical contrast, higher ultrasonic resolution, and so on. The present invention also has advantage in safety by adopting a light source having no ionizing radiation. An imaging method for diagnosing breast cancer is also herein disclosed.

A method and apparatus for compressing a patient's breast when using an X-ray mammography machine to take an image wherein said machine has a compression paddle and a bucky. A movable interface plate is mounted on the bucky as an interface between the bucky and a patient's breast. The method includes a step wherein the compression paddle is moved downwardly to provide compression forces on the breast; the movement of the compression paddle is stopped at a position where less than the full desired compression of the breast is attained. Next, the movable interface plate is elevated upwardly against the breast to obtain the full desired compression. The upward movement of the interface plate functions to distribute and balance the compression and shear forces applied to the breast.

The invention provides a calcification imaging method and system. The calcification imaging method comprises the following steps of: transmitting a first ultrasonic wave to a tissue; receiving the echo wave of the first ultrasonic wave and forming the first ultrasonograph of the tissue; transmitting a first light ray onto the tissue to excite a first optical sound; receiving the first optical sound and forming a first optical sound image of a calcification; and overlapping the first ultrasonograph with the first optical sound image to form a first overlapped image for imaging the distribution condition of the calcification in the tissue. Compared with ultrasonic wave and X-ray mammography, the image obtained by the invention has the advantages of no speckle noise, high optical absorption contrast and high ultrasonic wave spatial resolution, and the used light source is non-ionizing radiation, thus having higher safety.

The invention provides a calculating method for the exposure index in a digital X-ray mammography system. The method includes the steps that the linear coefficient between the dosage value of a dosimeter and the gray level average value of each photo is calculated first, the interesting value in a mammary gland region in each photo is calculated, and the exposure index is calculated according to the interesting value and the linear coefficient, so that the calculated exposure index is accurate, and a doctor can adjust the exposure parameter conveniently to obtain high-quality images and reduce the misdiagnosis rate. The invention further provides a calculating method for the deviation index in the digital X-ray mammography system.

The proposed group of inventions relates to methods for depositing fluorescent coatings on screens, by which an image is detected and/or converted, in particular, to methods of forming a structured scintillator on the surface of a photodetector intended for the detection of X-ray or gamma radiation, hereinafter referred to as the detected radiation, and to devices for obtaining an X-ray image, or an image obtained by detection of gamma radiation, particularly to devices for X-ray mammography and tomosynthesis. A method for forming a structured scintillator on the surface of a pixelated photodetector, wherein according to embodiment 1, at least one structural element is formed directly on the surface of the photodetector, the material of which is deposited by using a two-axis or a three-axis means for discrete deposition of liquid or heterogeneous substances. According to embodiment 2 of the method of forming a structured scintillator on the surface of a pixelated photodetector, at least one structural element is formed directly on the surface of the photodetector previously segmented with a hydrophobic insulating coating consistent with interpixel insensitive areas so that geometric shapes of depositing the material of the structural element are formed under the action of surface tension forces of the boundary of hydrophobic-hydrophilic areas of the photodetector surface. In addition, the group of inventions includes two embodiments of scintillation detectors. The inventions of the proposed group improve the manufacturability with simultaneous extension of the scope of application.

An x-ray apparatus for mammography, with an x-ray tube having a tungsten, a filter downstream in the beam direction of the x-ray tube and a detector downstream from the filter, the detector being produced from a semiconductor material. To improve the quality of mammographic x-ray exposures as well as to simultaneously reduce the radiation dose, the filter is produced from a filter material having a K-absorption edge in the range between 3.8 keV and 7.3 keV.