Biopsy needle positioning
AssigneeElscint Ltd.
InventorSimha Levene
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mammalary biopsy needle positioning scheme that improves on the system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,727. In the present invention, the arrival of the needle holder into a pixel is distinguished by comparing latest data per pixel to average data per pixel. If the comparison reveals marked differences from the average value, then the average value is discarded and the new data is used whereas in the absence of marked differences, the new data is averaged with the old average. The result is images with highlighted needle holder insertion information thereby providing images of the needle holder in the breast in a much shorter time than provided by the prior art and/or with smaller X-ray doses.
Claims7
A mammographic biopsy needle holder positioning system for positioning a needle holder to locate lesions in a patent's breast, said system comprising:
- a biopsy needle holder adapted to be inserted into the breast, said needle holder having a different X-ray transmission characteristic than body tissue,
- an X-ray source for generating X-ray beams directed to pass through the breast of the patient,
- an X-ray detector located opposite the X-ray source for detecting said X-ray beams after the X-ray beams traverse the breast and providing output signals,
- a processor for processing the output signals of the X-ray detector to provide display data giving views of the interior of the breast,
- compression plates for compressing the breast substantially in the direction of the X-ray beams,
- means for averaging said display data to obtain averaged display data,
- means for providing a display from said averaged display data,
- said processor including storage means for storing the average display data per pixel which is used to provide the display,
- comparison means for comparing data acquired last for a particular pixel to the averaged display data for the particular pixel to determine whether said data acquired last for the particular pixel is substantially the same as the averaged display data for the particular pixel,
- first gate means connected to said comparison means for averaging the data acquired last with the averaged display data for the particular pixel, and
- second gate means connected to said comparison means for providing the data acquired last to said storage means as new display data for the pixel without averaging with the prior obtained averaged data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.