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. 08, 2004
Filed:
Jun. 15, 2000
David A. Benaron, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Yair Talmi, Newtown, PA (US);
Ilian H. Parachikov, Fremont, CA (US);
Spectros Corporation, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for detecting and localizing a target tissue within the body in the presence of ambient light in which an optical contrast agent is administered and allowed to become functionally localized within a contrast-labeled target tissue to be diagnosed. A light source is optically coupled to a tissue region potentially containing the contrast-labeled target tissue. A gated light detector is optically coupled to the tissue region and arranged to detect light substantially enriched in target signal as compared to ambient light, where the target signal is light that has passed into the contrast-labeled tissue region and been modified by the contrast agent. A computer receives signals from the detector, and passes these signals to memory for accumulation and storage, and to then to image processing engine for determination of the localization and distribution of the contrast agent. The computer also provides an output signal based upon the localization and distribution of the contrast agent, allowing trace amounts of the target tissue to be detected, located, or imaged. A system for carrying out the method is also described.