SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EARLY BREAST CANCER DETECTION USING ELECTRICAL PROPERTY ENHANCED TOMOGRAPHY

• US 20090264791A1
• Filed: 04/17/2009
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wisys Technology Foundation Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Wisys Technology Foundation Incorporated
• Inventors: Gregory, Christopher, Gregory, William D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,066,671 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/547
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/046 in a matrix array
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/053 Measuring electrical impedance or conductance of a portion of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0536 Impedance imaging, e.g. by tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4312 Breast evaluation or disorder diagnosis A61B5/0091 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/502 for diagnosis of breast, i.e. mammography

Abstract

A system and method for detecting cancerous tissue in a subject is provided. More specifically, the present invention provides a system and method for non-invasively identifying cancerous regions in breast tissue. The system includes a sensor system, a drive system, and a processor. The sensor system includes a sensor plate and, similarly, the drive system includes a drive plate. A time-varying voltage is applied to the drive plate and induced currents are subsequently measured by the sensor plate. Signals indicative of an induced current are then acquired and analyzed by the processor to determine the spatial location of anomalous regions. Subsequently, the anomalous regions are characterized as either cancerous or non-cancerous.

Claims

1. A system for acquiring data from a portion of a subject to generate a report of a disease state of a region therein, the system comprising:

a drive system including a drive plate connected to provide a power to a portion of a subject arranged proximate to the drive plate;

a sensor system including a sensor plate spaced apart from the drive plate to receive the portion of the subject therebetween and configured to measure electrical characteristics from the portion of the subject resulting from the power applied by the drive plate; and

a processor configured to;

receive the electrical characteristics measured by the sensor plate and identify measured electrical characteristics indicative of anomalous regions within the portion of the subject; and

generate a report indicating a location and a disease state of the anomalous regions within the portion of the subject.

2. The system as recited in claim 1 in which the disease state is one of cancerous and non-cancerous.

3. The system as recited in claim 1 in which the sensor plate includes an array of sensor elements.

4. The system as recited in claim 3 in which the sensor plate is a continuous sheet of conductive metal disposed around a segmented array of conductive metal sensor elements.

5. The system as recited in claim 1 in which the sensor system includes at least one circuit board for performing phase sensitive detection on the measured electrical characteristics.

6. The system as recited in claim 1 in which the drive plate is a continuous sheet of conductive metal.

7. The system as recited in claim 1 in which the drive plate is a continuous sheet of conductive metal disposed around a segmented array of conductive metal electrodes.

8. The system as recited in claim 1 in which the processor identifies the location of the anomalous regions within the portion of the subject by:

determining a region within the portion of the subject that is substantially normal;

averaging the measured electrical characteristics within the normal region;

subtracting the averaged electrical characteristics from the measured electrical characteristics to produce a signal change measurements; and

determining the location of anomalous regions within the portion of the subject from the signal change measurements.

9. The system as recited in claim 1 in which the processor determines the disease state of the anomalous regions within the portion of the subject by determining, from the measured electrical characteristics, a characteristic frequency for each anomalous region.

10. The system as recited in claim 9 in which the processor calculates a probability indicative of the degree to which the determined characteristic frequency is substantially similar to reference signal information.

11. The system as recited in claim 10 in which the processor scales the calculated probability by a decision constant that substantially suppresses at least one of false positives and false negatives.

12. A method for identifying an anomalous region in a portion of a subject and determining a disease state thereof, the steps comprising:

a) applying an electrical power to the subject;

b) varying the magnitude of an electrical characteristic of the electrical power at a selected frequency;

c) acquiring, with a plurality of sensor elements, signals indicative of a second electrical characteristic resulting from the electrical power that is applied to the subject;

d) analyzing the signals acquired in step c) to determine the spatial location of at least one anomalous region within the subject;

e) characterizing the at least one anomalous region as one of a particular disease state by comparing the signals acquired in step c) to reference signal information; and

f) generating a report indicating the location and disease state of the anomalous regions within the portion of the subject.

13. The method as recited in claim 12 in which step d) includes:

d)i) calculating a local extrema of the acquired signal.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 in which step d) further includes:

d)ii) determining an in-plane location of the at least one anomalous region by determining which one of the plurality of sensor elements acquired the portion of the signal containing the local extrema calculated in step d)i).

15. The method as recited in claim 14 in which step d) further includes:

d)iii) determining a depth of the at least one anomalous region by calculating a width of the local extrema.

16. The method as recited in claim 12 in which step e) includes:

e)i) determining, from the signals acquired in step c), a characteristic frequency of a selected anomalous region.

17. The method as recited in claim 16 in which step e) further includes:

e)ii) calculating, from the characteristic frequency determined in step e)i) and the reference signal information, a probability that the selected anomalous region is a particular disease state.

18. The method as recited in claim 17 in which the calculated probability is scaled by a decision constant that substantially suppresses at least one of false positives and false negatives.

19. The method as recited in claim 12 in which the electrical characteristic of the electrical power is a voltage and in which the second electrical characteristic is a current.

20. The method as recited in claim 12 in which the electrical characteristic of the electrical power is a current and in which the second electrical characteristic is a voltage.