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US 2004/0171938 A1Published application
Diagnostic tomographic laser imaging apparatus
OwnerRichard J. Grableinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A laser imaging apparatus comprises a platform for supporting a female patient in frontdown, prone position, including an opening permitting a breast of the patient to be vertically pendant below the surface of the platform; scanning mechanism disposed below the platform to scan the breast without breast compression. The scanning mechanism includes a source of coherent near infrared light pulses operably directed to the breast; photodetectors operably disposed to detect the light pulses after passing through the breast; circuit for deriving voltages proportional to the intensity of the received pulses; and computer programmed for storing and displaying images of tissue in the breast derived from the voltages.
Claims23
A laser imaging apparatus, comprising:
- a) platform for supporting a female patient in front-down, prone position and having an opening permitting a breast of the patient to be vertically pendant below the surface of the platform;
- b) scanning mechanism including a multi-faceted mirror adjacent the underside of said platform, said mirror being-rotated about its own axis and orbited around the pendent breast;
- c) a source of coherent near infrared narrow light pulses operably directed to said multi-faceted mirror;
- d) optical reflectors directing said light pulses onto the facets of said mirror from a point spaced from said platform for reflection in a series of horizontal fan shaped beams through a breast pendent below said platform;
- e) photodetectors operably disposed to detect the light pulses after passing through the breast;
- f) circuit for deriving voltages proportional to the intensity of the received pulses;
- and,
- g) computer programmed for storing and displaying images of tissue in the breast derived from the voltages.
5 more elements
A method of providing imaging of humanoid breast tissue including:
- a) supporting a patient in face-down, prone position on a horizontal surface with a breast vertically pendent through an opening in said surface;
- b) directing a succession of narrow coherent near infrared light pulses through said breast in a horizontal pattern from a plurality of positions completely surrounding said breast;
- c) repeating said last step in a plurality of closely vertically spaced horizontal planes until the entire breast has been scanned;
- d) detecting said pulses after passage through said breast tissue and;
- e) deriving images of the tissue of said breast from said detected pulses by computed tomography reconstruction.
2 more elements
A scanning chamber for use in scanning human tissue, comprising:
- a) a frame;
- b) photodetectors disposed in a ring on said frame;
- c) a rotatable plate supported on said frame, said plate including an opening for permitting the human tissue to be suspended in said opening;
- d) said plate having an axis of rotation substantially coincident with center of said ring;
- e) a rotatable multi-faceted mirror disposed on said plate such that said mirror makes a complete orbit around said opening when said plate is rotated;
- and
- f) said mirror being positioned such that a laser pulse reflected therefrom is directed across said opening and through the tissue and impinge on said photodetectors during a complete orbit of said mirror.
4 more elements
A laser imaging apparatus, comprising:
- a) a scanning chamber including a source of laser beam for passing through a tissue and at least one photodetector adapted to respond to the laser beam exiting the tissue;
- b) an operational amplifier circuit connected to said at least photodetector for converting the current output of said at least detector to voltage;
- and
- c) a clamp circuit for protecting said operational amplifier from overvoltage.
1 more element
A laser imaging apparatus, comprising:
- a) a scanning chamber including a source of femtosecond pulse width near infrared laser beam for passing through a tissue and a plurality of photodetectors arranged around the tissue and adapted to respond to the laser beam exiting the tissue;
- b) a moving mirror for directing said source of laser beam to each of said photodetectors;
- c) an analog to digital converter operably connected to said photodetectors for converting output of said photodetectors to digital form;
- and
- d) a computer programmed to generate an image of the scanned tissue from the output of said converter.
2 more elements
A method for scanning a tissue, comprising the steps of:
- a) providing a series of laser pulses through the tissue;
- b) providing a photodetector disposed to receive the laser pulses after traversing the tissue;
- c) determining the free flight arrival time of the laser pulses at the detector when the tissue is not present;
- d) determining the delayed arrival time of the laser pulses when the tissue is present in the path of the laser pulses;
- e) determining the added time-of-flight of the laser pulses due to the presence of the tissue in the path;
- f) adding an increment of time to the added time-of-flight;
- and
- g) sampling the response of the photodetector after a delay of the added time-of-flight and the increment of time, from the free flight arrival time.
5 more elements
A scanning chamber for use in scanning human tissue, comprising:
- a) a frame;
- b) a rotatable plate supported on said frame, said plate including an opening for permitting the human tissue to be suspended in said opening;
- c) photodetectors disposed in on said plate;
- d) said plate having an axis of rotation substantially coincident with center of said ring;
- e) an oscillating mirror disposed on said plate such that said mirror makes a complete orbit around said opening when said plate is rotated;
- and
- f) said mirror being positioned such that a laser pulse reflected therefrom is directed across said opening and through the tissue and impinge on said photodetectors during a complete orbit of said mirror.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.