Digital scan mammography apparatus
First Claim
1. An apparatus for use in imaging an area of interest within a patient'"'"'s breast, the area of interest having a width relative to the patient'"'"'s chest wall, comprising:
- source means for transmitting a radiation signal through said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s breast;
receiving means, disposed in opposing relation to said source means with said patient'"'"'s breast positioned therebetween, for receiving said transmitted radiation signal, said receiving means comprising an active array of detector elements for accumulating electrical charge indicative of said received radiation signal, said active array of detector elements having a width relative to said patient'"'"'s chest wall which is less than a width of said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s breast;
scanning means for scanning said receiving means by moving said active array of detector elements in a direction generally parallel to said patient'"'"'s chest wall across said width of said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s breast during an exposure period wherein said radiation signal is transmitted through said patient'"'"'s breast; and
processing means for sequentially reading out said accumulated electrical charge from said active array of detector elements at increments relative to the scan of said receiving means across said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s breast during said exposure period thereby obtaining incremental imaging data, and for providing a composite image of said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s breast based on said incremental imaging data.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus is disclosed for imaging a patient'"'"'s breast (18) by scanning an imaging signal (58) and a receiver (30) across the patient'"'"'s breast (18) and then constructing a time-delay integration composite image based on the scan. The receiver (30) includes an array of radiation sensitive detector elements (132). Read out of the array (132) is synchronized with the scanning motion of the receiver (30) based on output from position encoder (104) such that synchronization is maintained despite scan drive variances. A novel assembly (106) is also disclosed for allowing selection of an appropriate radiation filter based on particular imaging conditions.
212 Citations
27 Claims
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1. An apparatus for use in imaging an area of interest within a patient'"'"'s breast, the area of interest having a width relative to the patient'"'"'s chest wall, comprising:
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source means for transmitting a radiation signal through said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s breast; receiving means, disposed in opposing relation to said source means with said patient'"'"'s breast positioned therebetween, for receiving said transmitted radiation signal, said receiving means comprising an active array of detector elements for accumulating electrical charge indicative of said received radiation signal, said active array of detector elements having a width relative to said patient'"'"'s chest wall which is less than a width of said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s breast; scanning means for scanning said receiving means by moving said active array of detector elements in a direction generally parallel to said patient'"'"'s chest wall across said width of said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s breast during an exposure period wherein said radiation signal is transmitted through said patient'"'"'s breast; and processing means for sequentially reading out said accumulated electrical charge from said active array of detector elements at increments relative to the scan of said receiving means across said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s breast during said exposure period thereby obtaining incremental imaging data, and for providing a composite image of said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s breast based on said incremental imaging data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18)
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16. An apparatus for use in imaging a selected region of a patient'"'"'s body, comprising:
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source means for transmitting a radiation signal through said selected region of said patient'"'"'s body; receiving means, disposed in opposing relation to said source means with said selected region of said patient'"'"'s body positioned therebetween, for receiving said radiation signal transmitted through said selected region of said patient'"'"'s body, said receiving means comprising an active array of detector elements adapted for accumulating electrical charge indicative of said received radiation signal, thereby yielding imaging information; scanning means for scanning said receiving means relative to said selected region of said patient'"'"'s body; encoding means for providing an encoder signal indicative of a scanning motion relative to a scan of said receiving means across said selected region of said patient'"'"'s body; read out means, employing said encoder signal, for reading out said accumulated electrical charge from said active array of detector elements so as to provide a read out signal; and processing means, employing said read out signal, for providing an image of said selected region of said patient'"'"'s body, wherein said processing means integrates said imaging information obtained over the course of a scan of said receiving means using said encoder signal to yield a composite image of said selected region of said patient'"'"'s body. - View Dependent Claims (17, 19, 20)
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21. An apparatus for use in imaging an area of interest within a patient'"'"'s body, comprising:
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transmitting means for transmitting an imaging signal through said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s body; receiving means, disposed in opposing relation to said transmitting means with said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s body positioned therebetween, for receiving said imaging signal transmitted through said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s body; collimator means for collimating said imaging signal into a narrow beam, said narrow beam having a longitudinal length and a transverse width, wherein said width is substantially less than said length and less than a width of said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s body; positioning means for positioning said collimator means such that said narrow beam is moveable across to said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s body; filter support means, for supporting at least first and second radiation filters, wherein said first filter has performance characteristics different than that of said second filter, said filter support means being supportably connected to said collimator means to provide for a first positioning of said filter support means relative to said area of interest in unison with said positioning of said collimator means by said positioning means and a second positioning of said filter support means in a transverse direction relative to said collimator means; and selection means, operatively associated with said filter support means, for selectively positioning one of said first filter or said second filter in a path of said narrow beam by transversely moving at least one of said first and second filters relative to said collimator means, wherein said apparatus allows for filter selection and movement of said narrow beam across said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s body. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An apparatus for use in imaging an area of interest within a patient'"'"'s body, comprising:
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source means for transmitting a radiation signal through said selected region of said patient'"'"'s body; receiving means, disposed in opposing relation to said source means with said selected region of said patient'"'"'s body positioned therebetween, for receiving said radiation signal transmitted through said selected region of said patient'"'"'s body; and filter support means for simultaneously supporting a first filter element in a first position relative to said source means corresponding to a first portion of said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s body and a second filter element in a second position relative to said source means corresponding to a second portion of said area of interest within said patient'"'"'s body, said second filter element having filtering characteristics different than said first filter element, wherein a first portion of said radiation signal passes through said first filter element and a second portion of said radiation signal passes through said second filter element. - View Dependent Claims (27)
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Specification