System for facilitating pathological examination of a lesion in tissue
First Claim
1. A method for facilitating pathological examination of a lesion located in tissue comprising the steps of:
- producing a macroscopic picture of the lesion;
generating images representing microscopic sections of said lesion which provide sufficient information for pathological examination of the lesion;
generating location information referencing the location in said macroscopic picture of the lesion to said sections; and
storing data in an electronic file structure which comprises at least a representation of said images, a representation of said macroscopic picture of the lesion, and said location information, wherein said generating step further comprises the step of scanning the lesion with the aid of confocal optics to generate confocal images representing microscopic sections of said lesion.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In order to facilitate pathological examination of a lesion in in-vivo tissue, a system and method are provided having a computer system in which both a camera for producing a digital macroscopic picture of the lesion and an imager are coupled to the computer system. The imager is responsive to the computer system and has optics for scanning the lesion to generate images representing microscopic sections of the lesion which provide sufficient information for pathological examination of the lesion. The computer system generates location information, referencing the location in the macroscopic picture of the lesion where the lesion was scanned to the images, and stores data in an electronic file structure which contains at least a representation of the images, a representation of the macroscopic picture, and the location information. The file structure may then be sent to another computer system for viewing the images stored in the file structure to facilitate pathological examination of the lesion by persons trained to interpret such images, adding a diagnostic report about the lesion to the data of the file structure, and sending back the file structure to the computer system that originated it.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method for facilitating pathological examination of a lesion located in tissue comprising the steps of:
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producing a macroscopic picture of the lesion; generating images representing microscopic sections of said lesion which provide sufficient information for pathological examination of the lesion; generating location information referencing the location in said macroscopic picture of the lesion to said sections; and storing data in an electronic file structure which comprises at least a representation of said images, a representation of said macroscopic picture of the lesion, and said location information, wherein said generating step further comprises the step of scanning the lesion with the aid of confocal optics to generate confocal images representing microscopic sections of said lesion. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7)
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2. A method for facilitating pathological examination of a lesion located in tissue comprising the steps of:
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producing a macroscopic picture of the lesion; generating images representing microscopic sections of said lesion which provide sufficient information for pathological examination of the lesion; generating location information referencing the location in said macroscopic picture of the lesion to said sections; and storing data in an electronic file structure which comprises at least a representation of said images, a representation of said macroscopic picture of the lesion, and said location information, wherein said generating step further comprises the step of generating images representing microscopic sections by one of optical coherence tomography, and two-photon laser microscopy. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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3. An apparatus for facilitating pathological examination of a lesion located in tissue comprising:
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a computer system; means coupled to said computer system for producing a digital macroscopic picture of the lesion; an imager coupled to said computer system for generating, responsive to said computer system, images representing microscopic sections of said lesion which provide sufficient information for pathological examination of the lesion; and said computer system further comprises means for generating location information referencing the location in said macroscopic picture of the lesion to said sections, and means for storing data in an electronic file structure which comprises at least a representation of said images, a representation of said macroscopic picture, and said location information, wherein said imager further comprises means for scanning the lesion through confocal optics to generate confocal images representing microscopic sections of said lesion. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification