The General Hospital Corporation

Massachusetts General Hospital Corporation

Brandeis University

Astrophysics Inc.

Richard Hardwick Moore

Daniel B Kopans

Tao Wu

H William Strauss

Nathaniel M Alpert

Carlos A Rabito

Rakesh K Jain

Martin Stanton

Lynne Jameson-Meehan

Walter Phillips

Fernando Quivira

Loren T Niklason

Simon Peter Bedford

Alex Stewart

Francois Zayek

Yves Boucher

Adam Stacy-Clear

An imaging system includes an x-ray or gamma ray source that emits an x-ray or gamma ray beam, a tunnel having a plurality of detectors, and a translatable platform. The detectors each receive a portion of the beam. The translatable platform supports cargo or a transported container and moves through the tunnel so that the cargo or transported container crosses the portions of the beam received by the detectors. The translatable platform may rotate and move through the tunnel at multiple angles. The imaging system may also include a computer and a graphical interface. The computer may receive information collected by the detectors and may reconstruct a three-dimensional image of the cargo or transported container. The graphical interface may display the three-dimensional image or information derived from the three-dimensional image. According to other embodiments, a system for creating a three-dimensional image may receive data from a wide vertical beam angle and generate and output a three-dimensional model.

Computed tomography system for cargo and transported containers

An imaging method and apparatus is described in which distances between a source and an object are changed and projection images are generated at each of the different distances.

Imaging system and related techniques

A tomosynthesis method for creating a three-dimensional reconstruction of a target element volume acquires radiation absorbance images of the target element volume through a limited plurality of positions. The target element volume is divided into a plurality of volume segments and a reconstruction algorithm is applied to each segment to generate a three-dimensional reconstruction of each volume segment. The three-dimensional reconstruction of each volume segment is then merged to create a three-dimensional reconstruction of the target volume. A tomosynthesis system and a computer program product for carrying out tomosynthesis are also provided.

Multi-segment cone-beam reconstruction system and method for tomosynthesis imaging

A peripheral equalization (PE) method and apparatus for compensating for thickness reduction in outer edges of the breast in a mammogram (i.e. a two-dimensional image) while keeping the central area substantially unchanged. The PE method and apparatus can also be applied to three dimensional (tomosynthesis) images of a breast. The peripheral equalization is achieved by segmenting the image of the breast into at least two regions and using a multi-threshold technique to process the data in at least one of the two regions.

Multi-threshold peripheral equalization method and apparatus for digital mammography and breast tomosynthesis

A measurement system is presented. The measurement system includes a source and a detector located a selected distance from the source with the source and the detector movable about a point, an axis or about a plane located proximate the detector.

Tomography system

A system for three-dimensional tomosynthesis imaging of a target element includes an image acquisition element and a processor. The image acquisition element obtains a plurality of images of the target element from a plurality of angles and includes a radiation source that is positionable at a plurality of angles with respect to the target element and a radiation detector. The radiation detector is positioned so as to detect radiation emitted by the radiation source passing through the target element and determine a plurality of attenuation values for radiation passing through the target element to establish a radiation absorbance projection image of the target element for a particular radiation source angle. The processor is configured to apply an iterative reconstruction algorithm to the radiation absorbance projection images of the target element obtained from a plurality of radiation source angles to generate a three-dimensional reconstruction of the target element.

Tomosynthesis imaging system and method

Accurate and continuous monitoring of clearance function is obtained by determining the depletion of a labelled substance from the extracellular body fluid using an external monitor which detects from within the defined tissue volume. The detector of the external monitor is contained within a barrier which functions to both exclude external influences and to functionally isolate the volume of extracellular fluid to be monitored.

Ambulatory clearance function monitor

An improved tissue imaging system is provided, in which tissue can be sheared without direct manual manipulation, so that different perspective images of the tissue can be determined, preferably in a single compression cycle. In one aspect of the invention, a traction system is provided, comprising at least a layer of a radiolucent material dimensioned and constructed such that the layer can pass between tissue and a surface of a tissue imaging device. The radiolucent material has sufficient tensile strength that the layer can slide without tearing against the surface of the tissue imaging device when tension is exerted on the layer, the sliding resulting in movement of the tissue relative to the surface of the tissue imaging device. A method of moving tissue relative to at least one surface of a tissue imaging device is also provided.

Apparatus and method for improved tissue imaging

A breast compression device is disclosed for use in a mammography system. A paddle support frame is provided which is slidably connected to a system arm of the mammography system. The paddle support frame is located between the x-ray tube and the detector of the mammography system. A compression paddle is pivotally connected within the support frame by a pivot connection. The pivot connection is located on a chest wall side of the support frame. The chest wall side is opposite the system arm. The compression paddle is substantially horizontal to the detector and is rotatable around the pivot connection. The compression paddle may include a breast portion which is substantially parallel to the detector and a chest wall portion which is substantially vertical to the detector. The compression paddle may also have a contoured shape where the chest wall portion is angled away from the system arm and the breast portion is contoured to mimic the contours of the breast.

Mammography breast compression device and method

A method for locating a lesion within a tissue mass, includes steps of measuring a selected parameter at two or more points in at least one path through the tissue mass, the measure of the selected parameter in a lesion being different from that in normal tissue. Also, apparatus for measuring a tissue parameter at two or more points in at least one path through the tissue mass includes an insertion needle, distally sharpened and made sufficiently rigid so that it can be inserted distal end foremost into the tissue mass along the path, and, insertible with the needle, a sensor capable of prodding a measure of the tissue parameter at a point in the tissue mass along the path. Where the parameter is selected as one that has a measure different in a lesion type, the apparatus can be used in carrying out the method, whereby a measure at a point in the tissue mass of the selected tissue parameter provided by the sensor indicates that the point is within a lesion. In an embodiment for measuring interstitial fluid pressure in the tissue mass, the sensor includes a tube slidably engageable within the lumen of the insertion needle; the sensor tube is closed at a distal end, and the walls of the sensor tube and the insertion needle are prodded distally with ports, positioned in relation to the respective distal ends such that when the sensor tube is engaged within the insertion tube lumen the ports can be substantially aligned to provide fluid communication between the lumen of the sensor tube and the tissue adjacent the ports; the sensor tube lumen contains a plurality of filaments, and is operationally connected to a pressure measurement deuce such that the pressure measurement deuce is responsive to fluid pressure within the sensor tube lumen.

Method for locating tumors prior to needle biopsy

Accurate and continuous monitoring of clearance function is obtained by determining the depletion of a labelled substance from the extracellular body fluid using an external monitor which detects label from within a defined tissue volume. The detector of the external monitor is contained within a collimator which functions to both exclude external influences and to functionally isolate the volume of extracellular fluid to be monitored. Also, a method for determining and expressing a clearance function in a subject includes steps of allowing a time sufficient to permit establishment of equilibrium of a detectable substance in the extracellular space in the subject, obtaining first and second measures, at first and second times, of the detectable substance in the extracellular fluid within a defined tissue volume in the subject, and determining the slope of the measures over the time interval.

An ambulatory ventricular function anaylzer system is provided. The ambulatory ventricular function analyzer system is carried by a garment worn by a cardiac patient and includes ECG electrodes, a main left ventricular probe detector, and a background lung probe detector for providing diagnostically useful information while the patient goes about the normal activities of daily life. An information processing sub-system including a microprocessor responds to the electrode signal and to the probe signals and provides composite data representative of the ECG activity, the background lung time-activity, the left ventricular time-activity, and an R-wave histogram averaged over multiple cardiac cycles. The averaged data is sequentially sotred over a long time interval on magnetic tape in plural categories representing premature ventricular contraction, postpremature ventricular contraction, and normal ventricular contraction for subsequent display on a computer-based graphics display for study by a cardiac specialist. The main left ventricular function probe detector includes an array of cadmium telluride crystals mounted in a Pb housing having a parallel hole Pb collimator. The detector is substantially insensitive to position changes that arise during ambulatory monitoring.

Ambulatory ventricular function monitor

A vest for positioning medical instrumentation about the human or animal torso to provide ambulatory monitoring of patient cardiac functions or administration of medication or therapy with reasonable freedom of movement while maintaining precise positioning of the instrumentation relative to the torso. The vest functions to provide accurate placement of such instrumentation as a radioactive emission sensor for monitoring ejection fraction. The vest typically includes a sheet of a dimensionally rigid material such as a low density polymer tailored to fit between neck and hips and to surround the torso, terminating on the back. Straps are provided to fasten the sheet ends together at the back and to suspend it from the shoulders. The vest may also be instrumented to function as a transducer itself to detect chest expansion for heart beat or lung volume monitoring.

Body hugging instrumentation vest having radioactive emission detection

A variable angle radiation collimator particularly for use in gamma-photon medical diagnostic systems in a gamma-photon camera system for radiological examination of human subjects. The collimator provides collimation of gamma-photon radiation along a single beam direction which may be varied along two axes to adjust exposure angle or to provide a scanning capability. The collimator is a stack of substantially identical radiation-opaque plates, each of which are apertured with a similar array of openings. The combined effect of the stacked aperture plates is to transmit radiation in a predetermined orientation. The collimated angle of the radiation thus generated is controlled by the coincidence of the array of openings. The stack is retained by a mechanism which permits adjustment of the collimation angle, and the plates are fabricated to provide ease of shear motion during such adjustment. In addition, the tradeoff between the resolution and intensity of radiation transmitted may be easily varied by adjusting stack thickness.

Growing community of inventors

Concord, MA, United States of America

Richard Hardwick Moore