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:
Dec. 18, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 12, 1999
Stephen T. Yarnall, Poway, CA (US);
Mark W. DiFrancesco, Loveland, OH (US);
Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., Cincinnati, OH (US);
Abstract
A non-linear guidance method for radiation detection is described herein wherein a heuristic non-linear radiation detection method is utilized is for the location of sentinel nodes for staging cancer. The method of radiation detection described herein includes the steps of: Generating radiation decay rate counts wherein the counts are a sum of detected radiation decay events over a time interval; loading the counts into an array; summing selected elements of the array to generate a total count and a plurality of candidate counts; comparing the total count to one of the candidate counts to determine whether the one of the candidate counts is statistically different from the total count; using the statistically different one of the candidate counts as an output count rate; and generating an output signal using the output count rate to determine the characteristics of the output signal.