Stereotactic ultrasonic diagnostic process

Abstract

A method of locating diseased intracranial tissue employing ultrasonic imaging. The method includes providing a stereotactic frame having a plurality of frame members in a plurality of planar orientations. An ultrasonic probe device in communication with a computed tomography scanner is mounted on a frame member, and the frame is secured to a skull of a living being such that the probe device is aimed toward the skull. The probe is activated at a plurality of sites on the frame member, and respective scan slice images corresponding to each of the plurality of sites from within the skull are recorded. The method can also include employment of at least one additional probe device chosen from the group consisting of a magnetic resonance imaging probe, a positron tomography emission probe and an x-ray computed tomography probe. Each device is similarly mounted on a frame member and activated in sequence with the ultrasonic probe at the plurality of sites where activation of the ultrasonic probe occurs such that images captured by each additional device during such activation are recorded.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.