Tissue sensing adaptive radar imaging for breast tumor detection
OwnerElise Fear, Michal Okoniewski +1inventors
InventorsElise Fear, Michal Okoniewski, Maria Stuchly
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Abstract
A tissue-sensing adaptive radar method of detecting tumours in breast tissue uses microwave backscattering to detect tumours which have different electrical properties than healthy breast tissue. The method includes steps for reducing skin reflections and for constructing a three-dimensional image using synthetic focusing which shows the presence or absence of microwave reflecting tissues.
Claims9
A method of detecting the presence or absence of a tumour within a breast comprising skin and an interior volume, comprising the steps of:
- (a) illuminating the breast with microwaves from a plurality of locations and recording the reflections received at each location as a signal;
- (b) identifying a first skin reflection and a second skin reflection separated by a period of time and time-gating the signal by setting all data arriving before the first skin reflection and after the second skin reflection to zero;
- (c) creating a first estimate of reflections from the skin and subtracting said first skin reflections from each signal;
- (d) creating a second estimate of reflections from the skin for a single location from the signals received in at least two adjacent locations and subtracting the second skin reflections from each signal;
- (e) constructing a three-dimensional image of the interior volume from the signals showing the presence or absence of microwave reflecting tissues.
A method of detecting the presence or absence of a tumour within a breast comprising skin and an interior volume, comprising the steps of:
- (a) illuminating the breast with microwaves from a plurality of locations and recording the reflections received at each location as a signal;
- (b) identifying a first skin reflection and a second skin reflection separated by a period of time and time-gating the signal by setting all data arriving before the first skin reflection and after the second skin reflection to zero;
- (c) creating a first estimate of reflections from the skin and subtracting said first skin reflections from each signal;
- (d) adaptively estimating reflections from strongly reflecting non-tumour tissue within the interior volume and subtracting such reflections from the signals by
- (i) creating a second estimate of reflections from the skin for a single location from the signals received in at least two adjacent locations and
- (ii) subtracting the second skin reflections from each signal;
- (e) constructing a three-dimensional image of the interior volume from the signals showing the presence or absence of microwave reflecting tissues.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.