System and method for early breast cancer detection using electrical property enhanced tomography

• US 9,066,671 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2009
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wisys Technology Foundation Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Wisys Technology Foundation Incorporated
• Inventors: Gregory, William D., Gregory, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): HENSON, DEVIN B
• Application Number:
  US12/425,567
• Publication Number:
  US 20090264791A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,265 Days
• Field of Search: 600/547
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 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) determining an in-plane spatial location of at least one anomalous region within the subject by calculating a local extremum of the signals acquired in step c) and determining which one of the plurality of sensor elements acquired a portion of the signals acquired in step c) that contains the calculated local extremum;

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;

f) generating a report indicating the in-plane spatial location and the disease state of the anomalous regions within the portion of the subject; and

wherein step d) includes determining a depth of the at least one anomalous region by calculating a width of the local extremum.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 in which step e) includes:

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

3. The method as recited in claim 2 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.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 in which the calculated probability is scaled by a decision constant that substantially suppresses at least one of false positives and false negatives.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 in which the electrical characteristic of the electrical power is a voltage and in which the second electrical characteristic is a current.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 in which the electrical characteristic of the electrical power is a current and in which the second electrical characteristic is a voltage.