National Biomedical Research Foundation

Georgetown University

Other

National Biochemical Research Foundation

Robert S Ledley

Thomas J Golab

Douglas M Gersten

Edward J Zapolski

James B Wilson

Michael Buas

Very rapid diagnosis and sensitivity testing can significantly stem the growing Tuberculosis epidemic in the United States, caused by susceptible AIDs patients and the occurrence of antibiotic resistant mycobacilli. Thus I have invented an automated computerized microscope, the ATBD unit, and slide module to diagnose and test patient's sputum by examining individual living mycobacteria from the patient sample with no culturing required. The diagnosis and sensitivity testing is accomplished in minutes or hours, instead of the current weeks to months. The system inserts a plasmid, specific for M. tuberculosis, carrying the luciferase gene into the mycobacteria by improved electroporesis on the slide. Luminescence indicates tuberculosis. Then the mycobacteria are bathed in antibiotics, and if the luminescence is not turned off, the patient's bacteria are resistant. A phage carrying the luciferase gene can also be used to infect the M.TB. Finally, the invention can be applied to any mycobacteriological infection to do diagnosis sensitivity testing even when the species is not known.

Super fast tuberculosis diagnosis and sensitivity testing method

It is often important for medical purposes to obtain nucleated fetal cells during pregnancy. For example, the procedures of amniocentesis or chrionic villae extraction are carried out for this purpose. But these methods are invasive, and carry a small but positive risk to the patient, and are complicated to perform. On the other hand, the purpose of my invention is to obtain nucleated fetal cells (fetal nucleated reticulocytes) from maternal blood, which eliminates the need for invasive methods. There are a small number of nucleated fetal red blood cells (reticulocytes) in maternal blood and my invention is a method and apparatus for separating these fetal cells from maternal blood. Several methods have previously been proposed, involving fluorescent antibody antigen reactions (immunofluorescence), other antibody-antigen means, that depend on the difference between the cell walls of maternal and fetal blood cells, but all of these methods have been unsatisfactory because they have proved to be unreliable and expensive, and to involve some final additional technique to isolate the cells, such as flow cytometry. On the other hand, my invention does not use antibody-antigen means, but is based on the fundamental difference between maternal and fetal cells, namely that the former contains adult hemoglobin (HbA) while the latter contains fetal hemoglobin (HbF). The difference in the properties of these hemoglobin molecules themselves enables the fetal cells to be separated from the maternal cells by a magnetic field means.

Separation of fetal cells from maternal blood

A non-slip support shoe for attachment to the end of any crutch or other walking aid comprises an attachment cylinder for attaching the shoe to the bottom of the crutch or walking aid; a pair of strip leaf springs, at least one of which is connected to the attachment cylinder; and a rubber sole provided on the bottom surface of a lower one of the strip leaf springs. In operation, when the maximum weight of a body is exerted on the crutch or walking aid, the strip leaf springs change configuration (i.e., flatten) so that the entire sole located on the lower strip leaf spring contacts the ground, thereby preventing slippage during use of the crutch or walking aid. Once the maximum weight of the body is removed, the strip leaf springs return to their original configuration so as not to interfere with the angled forward and backward positions of the crutch during use.

Non-slip support shoe for a walking aid

A cursor control device for use with a three-dimensional stereoscopic image display system comprises a housing defining a volume corresponding to a displayed three-dimensional volume, and a joystick operable by the user for moving and positioning a cursor in the displayed three-dimensional volume. The joystick has a knob which is movable within the volume defined by the housing so as to designate desired positioning and movement of the cursor within the displayed three-dimensional volume. There is, at any given time, both positional and movement congruency between the position and movement of the knob and position and movement, respectively, of the cursor.

Three-dimensional cursor control device

The invention provides the user with the capability of viewing a form positioned in a printer associated with a computer, a keyboard and a monitor. The printer has a camera and a lens positioned thereon, the camera including an image sensing array for providing video signals corresponding to images sensed on the form. The computer processes the video signals to display images sensed on various portions of the form. The user responds by entering via a keyboard data corresponding to the various portions of the form displayed. During the first use of a form, the computer memorizes the portions of the form for which data are entered and on which data are to be printed. For subsequent uses of the form the corresponding data are entered via the keyboard, and the printer automatically fills in the form.

Form printer with interactive camera and computer control

A method for determining the distribution of a radioactive material in a medium is provided which comprises the steps of: (a) providing a plurality of radiation detectors at a set of predetermined locations, each of said detectors producing an electrical output indicative of the amount of radioactive material in the vicinity of the detector; (b) moving the medium containing the radioactive material and the plurality of radiation detectors relative to one another so as to position the medium relative to the detectors at each of a set of predetermined positions; and (c) recording the electrical output of each of the detectors at each of the predetermined positions. Apparatus for practicing the method is also provided.

Methods and apparatus for determining distributions of radioactive

A three-dimensional imaging system for obtaining a three-dimensional image of an object being scanned ultrasonically comprises a source arrangement for sequentially transmitting ultrasonic energy toward the object in successive directions in a first scanning plane, followed by sequential transmission of ultrasonic energy toward the object in successive directions in successive scanning planes parallel to the first scanning plane, a detector arrangement for receiving reflected energy and converting the reflected energy to electrical signals, and a processor for processing the electrical signals to develop reconstructed image data of the object, the reconstructed image data comprising forward projections of the object into a left image plane and a right image plane to form left and right images, respectively, the left and right images forming a stereo pair for composite display by a display unit. In a further embodiment of the invention, the source arrangement sequentially transmits ultrasonic energy toward the object in successive directions in a first scanning plane, and repeats the sequential transmission of ultrasonic energy in successive scanning planes, the successive planes having increasing angular orientations with respect to the first scanning plane. Further features of the invention include the provision of various source-detector combinations and arrangements.

Three-dimensional imaging system

An array of radiation detectors is rotated about one or more sources of fan-shaped substantially planar radiation beams which are, in turn, rotated in the opposite direction about a three-dimensional body such that substantially parallel paths are defined between given individual detectors of the array and the radiation sources during the course of their oppositely directed movements. Radiation absorption measurements are taken along thusly defined plural intersecting sets of substantially parallel paths within a desired cross-section of the three-dimensional body to provide data for use in computing and displaying a constructed visual image of structures having different radiation absorption coefficients within the cross-section.

Method and apparatus for computerized tomographic scanning with plural

A three-dimensional imaging system for obtaining a three-dimensional image of an object being scanned ultrasonically comprises a source arrangement for sequentially transmitting ultrasonic energy toward the object in successive directions in a first scanning plane, followed by sequential transmission of ultrasonic energy toward the object in successive directions in successive scanning planes, a detector arrangement for receiving reflected energy and converting the reflected energy to electrical signals, and a processor for processing the electrical signals to develop reconstructed image data of the object, the reconstructed image data comprising forward projections of the object into a left image plane and a right image plane to form left and right images, respectively, the left and right images forming a stereo pair for composite display by a display unit. In one embodiment, each successive scanning plane is parallel to the first scanning plane. In a further embodiment, successive scanning planes have increasing angular orientations, measured at the point of ultrasonic transmission, with respect to the first scanning plane. In another embodiment, successive scanning planes have increasing angular orientations, measured along a common axis, with respect to the first scanning plane.

A system and method for interactively displaying magnified images of an object having different respective magnifications is disclosed. The system comprises a microscope stage for holding the object, an optical arrangement for magnifying an image of the object in accordance with different respective magnifications so as to produce first and second optical outputs in corresponding first and second optical paths with different respective magnifications in each path, first and second cameras disposed in the first and second paths, and display units for displaying the first and second images of the object magnified in accordance with the different respective magnifications. The system further includes a computer for processing operator inputs commanding movement of the first and second images, and movement control circuitry (including an interface circuit, a motor driver, and a position detector) for moving the images as commanded by the operator, and for keeping track of the position of the microscope stage, further movement being halted when predetermined position limits of the microscope stage are reached.

Interactive microscopic image display system and method

A three-dimensional imaging system for obtaining a three-dimensional image of an object being scanned ultrasonically comprises a source arrangement for sequentially transmitting ultrasonic energy toward the object in successive directions in a first scanning plane, followed by sequential transmission of ultrasonic energy toward the object in successive directions in successive scanning planes parallel to the first scanning plane, a detector arrangement for receiving reflected energy and converting the reflected energy to electrical signals, and a processor for processing the electrical signals to develop reconstructed image data of the object, the reconstructed image data comprising forward projections of the object into a left image plane and a right image plane to form left and right images, respectively, the left and right images forming a stereo pair for composite display by a display unit. In a further embodiment of the invention, the source arrangement sequentially transmits ultrasonic energy toward the object in successive directions in a first scanning plane, and repeats the sequential transmission of ultrasonic energy in successive scanning planes, the successive planes having increasing angular orientations with respect to the first scanning plane. Further features of the invention include the provision of various source-detector combinations and arrangements, as well as the simultaneous generation of ultrasonic beams having different frequencies in different respective directions during each given scanning cycle.

Television (TV) scanning with improved resolution is obtained by implementation into a conventional TV scanning arrangement of a vertical drive signal modifying circuit which modifies vertical drive signals prior to their being provided as an input to the conventional TV scanning arrangement. Processing of the vertical drive signals results in the generation of various time delay signals which, when logically combined in accordance with the present invention, result in the generation of modified vertical drive signals. As a result of application of the modified vertical drive signals to the conventional TV scanner arrangement, the number of fields making up the conventional interlace pattern is multiplied by an integral factor greater than one.

Television scanning with improved resolution

A method of metabolically mapping one or more central nervous system components of a mammalian body by computerized axial tomography scanning which entails injecting an effective amount of a 2-, 5- or 6-iodo-substituted hexose, as a contrast medium, into the mammalian body, and scanning the mammalian body by computerized axial tomography, thereby visualizing the concentration flux of said hexose in the central nervous system component or components.

Radioopaque sugar derivatives and a method of metabolic mapping using

A split-image, multi-power microscopic image display system and method wherein the image of an object positioned on a slide is split into two optical paths, and is magnified to a varying degree in each optical path, the resulting respective magnifications being displayed on respective monitor devices. The initial optical path includes an objective and a splitter; the path of lower magnification includes a converging lens, diverging lens, reduction lens, bending prism, TV camera and TV monitor; the path of higher magnification includes a trinocular microscope head, TV camera, and TV monitor. Further features of the invention include the following: provision of a microcomputer with data entry means, and respective mixers disposed between the TV cameras and their monitors for insertion of identifying information into the video signal and subsequent display on the monitors of the identifying information and the image of the object being microscopically viewed; provision of a photographic printer for producing a hardcopy record of the image viewed; and provision of a lens switching arrangement for selection of various objectives without the necessity of refocusing after a lens is switched into position.

Split-image, multi-power microscopic image display system and method

An operator-interactive automated chromosome analysis system is employed by an operator to locate and identify acceptable metaphase spreads, form a karyotype by rearranging the identified metaphase spreads in accordance with a predetermined arrangement of the twenty-three pairs of chromosomes naturally occurring in human beings, and display the karyotype on a display or a hardcopy printout, or both. The system comprises the following elements: a mechanized microscope system; a microscope and closed circuit television arrangement for microscopically scanning the chromosome spreads; a metaphase detector producing an output indicating metaphase detection; a television monitor for viewing the detected metaphase spreads; a photographic printer for producing a hardcopy representation of the detected metaphase spreads; and a computer, including a video interface, for controlling the mechanized microscope stage to locate the metaphase spreads, for analyzing the metaphase detector output to determine the location and grades of metaphases, for displaying a patient identifier on the monitor or hardcopy, and for rearranging and displaying the detected metaphase spreads so as to produce the karyotype.

Growing community of inventors

Silver Spring, MD, United States of America

Robert S Ledley