X-ray diagnostic device for mammography examinations

• US 20030198315A1
• Filed: 04/04/2003
• Published: 10/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Elema AB
• Inventors: Teksoz-Wibrink, Josefin, Karlsson, Stefan, Andreasson, Jesper
• Granted Patent: US 7,003,073 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 378/37
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/0414 with compression means
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/502 for diagnosis of breast, i.e. mammography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/56 Details of data transmission or power supply, e.g. use of slip rings

Abstract

An X-ray diagnostics device for mammography examinations has an arm for an X-ray tube and a subject table as well as a compression plate arranged between the X-ray tube and the subject table, the compression plate being connected to the arm and being displaceable along it. The arm can be rotated around a horizontal shaft and is height-adjustable along a longitudinal axis of a stand. The arm is rotatable with a first displacement arrangement around the horizontal shaft, and the shaft is secured to a mount that is laterally displaceable with a second displacement arrangement. As a result the arm is laterally displaceable. The mount is displaceably attached to a lifting arrangement connected to the stand, the lifting arrangement is height-adjustable with a third displacement arrangement. A control device operates using a control program that accepts output signals of position sensors that indicate the height and lateral positions of the arm as well as from a synchro system that indicates the rotational angle of the arm, to control the second and third displacement arrangements for the displacement of the arm laterally and in height as well as the first displacement arrangement for the rotation of the arm such that a rotation of the arm around an axis that can be arbitrarily selected along the longitudinal axis of the stand is enabled. Thus the arm can be rotated around an isocenter adapted to the patient from one exposure position into another exposure position with the desired rotational angle, with the patient remaining in position regardless of the breast size.

Claims

1. An X-ray diagnostic device for mammography examinations, comprising:

an X-ray tube, a subject table and a compression plate attached to an arm, witch said compression plate being displaceable along said arm between said X-ray tube and said subject table;

a stand having a vertical longitudinal axis;

a first displacement arrangement, a second displacement arrangement, and a third displacement arrangement;

a lifting element displaceable in said stand along said longitudinal axis by said first displacement arrangement;

a mount attached to said lifting element, said mount having a horizontal shaft to which said arm is attached;

said mount and said arm being laterally displaceable relative to said lifting element by said second displacement arrangement and said arm being rotatable around said shaft by said third displacement arrangement;

a first position sensor which detects, and emits an output signal corresponding to, a height of said lifting element along said longitudinal axis;

a second position sensor which detects, and emits an output signal corresponding to, a lateral position of said mount relative to said lifting element;

a synchro system which detects, and emits an output signal corresponding to, a rotational angle of said arm relative to said shaft; and

a control unit, supplied with the respective outputs from said first and second position sensors and said synchro system, for controlling said first, second and third displacement arrangements dependent on said outputs, to rotate said arm around an arbitrarily selectable spatial axis along said longitudinal axis.

2. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said compression plate is displaceable into a compression position, and wherein said control unit sets said spatial axis at a distance from said subject table equal to half a distance between said subject table and said compression plate in said compression position.