The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 01, 1998
Filed:
Oct. 21, 1996
Robert R Alfano, Bronx, NY (US);
Ping-Pei Ho, Great Neck, NY (US);
Leming Wang, Flushing, NY (US);
Xiangchun Liang, Bronx, NY (US);
Pierre A Galland, Queensvillage, NY (US);
The Research Foundation of City College of New York, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A method for detecting the presence of one or more calcifications within a portion of a turbid medium, such as a breast tissue. According to one aspect, the method involves illuminating at least a portion of the turbid medium with light, whereby light emerges from the turbid medium consisting of a ballistic component, a snake-like component and a diffuse component, temporally and/or spatially gating the emergent light to preferentially pass the ballistic and/or snake-like components, using the temporally and/or spatially gated light to form an image of the illuminated portion of the turbid medium, and examining the image for the presence of one or more calcifications. Wavelength difference images may also be used to highlight tumors and calcification regions. The foregoing method may be used to form optical images of breast tissues, with the presence in such images of calcifications suggestive of cancer being used to identify the corresponding breast tissues as good candidates for biopsy and screening for tumors.