Breast cancer screening with ultrasound image overlays
First Claim
16. A method for facilitating the detection of abnormalities in a breast, comprising:
- displaying an x-ray mammogram image of the breast to a user;
displaying an ultrasound image of the breast near said x-ray mammogram image;
overlaying one of said ultrasound image or said x-ray mammogram image over the other such that said images are in at least approximate registration; and
shifting a position of said overlying image relative to said underlying image by incremental amounts under manual control of the user, said shifting facilitating user perception of structures within the breast.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An adjunctive ultrasound mammography system and associated methods are described in which an ultrasound image being displayed near an x-ray mammogram image may be superimposed thereon or thereunder by a user for facilitating rapid comprehension of breast structures and detection of abnormalities therein. In one preferred embodiment, the x-ray mammogram image corresponds to a standard x-ray mammogram view, and the ultrasound image is a thick-slice image representing a thick-slice or slab-like portion of the breast volume substantially parallel to that standard x-ray mammogram view. In another preferred embodiment, the user is permitted to manually manipulate the registration of the ultrasound image with the x-ray mammogram image. It has been found that the manual registration process, which involves manual vernier adjustments responsive to perceived registration differences, can rapidly increase the radiologist'"'"'s perception of the breast structures being displayed by both component images. Even though ultrasound images tend to have substantially different textures and feature emphases than x-ray images, the bimodal thick-slice/x-ray image, alone or in conjunction with the vernier registration process, can often expose or clarify tissue structures hidden in the separate component images, and can often obviate or explain certain noticed structures in the component images.
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Citations
50 Claims
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16. A method for facilitating the detection of abnormalities in a breast, comprising:
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displaying an x-ray mammogram image of the breast to a user;
displaying an ultrasound image of the breast near said x-ray mammogram image;
overlaying one of said ultrasound image or said x-ray mammogram image over the other such that said images are in at least approximate registration; and
shifting a position of said overlying image relative to said underlying image by incremental amounts under manual control of the user, said shifting facilitating user perception of structures within the breast. - View Dependent Claims (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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28. The method of claim 28, said underlying image also being imprinted on a translucent medium, said underlying and overlying images being displayed on a lightbox.
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31-1. The method of claim 17, said overlying and underlying images both being displayed on a computer monitor, said overlaying comprising pixelwise mixing of said overlying and underlying images according to a predetermined mixing algorithm.
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34. An apparatus for facilitating analysis of a breast using an x-ray mammogram image thereof and ultrasound information derived from ultrasonic scans of the breast, comprising:
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a display device; and
a processor coupled with said display device and generating for viewing thereon a display output, said display output comprising a superposition of a thick-slice ultrasound image and the x-ray mammogram image, said thick-slice ultrasound image representing sonographic properties of a slab-like volume within the breast occupying less than the entire breast volume. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. An apparatus for facilitating analysis of a breast using an x-ray mammogram image thereof and ultrasound information derived from ultrasonic scans of the breast, comprising:
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a display device viewable by a user;
an input device; and
a processor coupled with said input device and with said display device, said processor generating and providing a display output to said display device, said display output comprising a superposition of the x-ray mammogram image and a two-dimensional ultrasound image derived from the ultrasound information, said superposition being characterized by an alignment amount, said processor adjusting said alignment amount according to direct manual manipulations of said input device by the user, user observation of said display output during said alignment adjustments facilitating user perception of breast structures. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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Specification