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:
May. 08, 2001
Filed:
Feb. 01, 1999
Robert Jacob von Gutfeld, New York, NY (US);
James Francis Ziegler, Yorktown Heights, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The invention provides a system for therapeutic treatment of an organ, tumor, or other internal structure of a living body with therapeutic radiation after implantation, at the organ, of a magnetic element to identify the location of the organ, the element being capable of emitting a magnetic signal in response to an applied magnetic field. The system comprises a magnetic field generator for irradiating the magnetic element with an applied magnetic field, a movable magnetic field sensor for detecting the magnetic signal from a plurality of selected mutually displaced positions to produce a corresponding plurality of element-locating signals, a computing apparatus for converting the signals to a location image of the internal structure, and a controlled source of therapeutic radiation for focussing a selected degree and duration of therapeutic radiation at a target determined from the location image of the magnetic element. Preferably, the magnetic element is a length of wire of an amorphous magnetic material which produces a magnetic signal that exhibits non-linear Bark+hausen jumps in response to an applied ac magnetic field.