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:
Jun. 12, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 07, 1998
Deva Narayan Pattanayak, Schenectady, NY (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
Optical diffusion waves are generated inside localized regions in highly scattering media such as human breast tissue by simultaneously using visible and near-infrared light and focusing ultrasound waves in localized regions. The vibrating tissue medium scatters the impinging light to produce intensity-modulated diffusion waves. The diffusion waves emanating from the insonified region have a frequency equal to the frequency (or a harmonic) of the ultrasound waves and detected at the boundary of the breast in order to acquire data for the density, absorption and scattering parameters in each localized region. A multiplicity of diffusion wave detectors arranged at the boundary of the breast detect scattered diffusion waves at a multiplicity of locations. Each diffusion wave detector comprises a photodetector whose output signals are fed to a detector which detects the amplitudes and phase of the diffusion waves. The amplitude and phase signal components of the diffusion waves are supplied to a processor which computes pixel values for display on a monitor.