Method And Apparatus For Rapid Detection And Diagnosis Of Tissue Abnormalities

A method of detecting movement during a measurement of tissue characteristics, comprising the steps of:

• a) forming a first image of the target tissue;
• b) illuminating a target tissue with optical energy;
• c) performing spectroscopic measurements on optical energy received from the target tissue from illumination;
• d) forming a second image of the target tissue, e) comparing the first and second images to determine the degree of movement of the tissue, if any;
• f) comparing the degree of movement to a predetermined standard;
• g) if the movement is less than said standard, determining tissue characteristics of the target tissue based on the results of the spectroscopic measurements.

A method of determining locating and differentiating normal and abnormal cervical tissue by optical interrogation of target tissue comprising the steps of:

• a) illuminating a portion of the target tissue along a band of spaced apart, generally horizontal line of points and measuring optical energy received from said points,
• b) shifting said line of points generally vertically, illuminating a new portion of the target tissue, vertically offset from the previous illumination, and measuring optical energy received from said points, to create a matrix of measured points
• c) repeating the step of shifting generally vertically until at least a portion of the cervix has been interrogated;
• d) determining the presence of abnormal tissue by comparing adjacent measured horizontal and vertical points based on the assumption that abnormal tissue is more likely to spread vertically than horizontally.

A method of detecting tissue characteristics, comprising:

• dividing an area of target tissue into a plurality of detection points arranged in columns;
• illuminating the plurality of detection points one column at a time;
• performing spectroscopic measurements on optical energy received from the target tissue;
• and determining tissue characteristics of the target tissue based on the results of the spectroscopic measurements including the step detecting tissue characteristics using the rule that the adjacent horizontal points are more likely to be the boundary between normal and abnormal tissue than adjacent vertical points.