Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090036766 | Imaging By Magnetic Resonance Adsorption, Elastography And Tomography - A microwave imaging system provides superior breast imaging resolution by combining MR microwave absorption and MR-compatible microwave tomography calculations. These techniques may also be supplemented with magnetic resonance elastography techniques, for example, to facilitate quick multispectral imaging. | 02-05-2009 |
20090247847 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION - Optical tomography systems that provide light of multiple distinct wavelengths from a plurality of sources are described. The systems direct light into mammalian tissue, and light from the mammalian tissue is collected at a plurality of reception points. Collected light from each reception point is separated according to its wavelength, and received by a photodetector to produce path attenuation signals representing attenuation along paths between the source locations and the reception points. An image construction system generates a tomographic image of the mammalian tissue from the path attenuation signals. One embodiment of an optical imaging system includes an optical coherence tomography-near infrared probe. The systems and methods may utilize a spectral derivative approach that provides insensitivity to the boundary and boundary artifacts in the signal, thereby improving the quality of the reconstructed images. | 10-01-2009 |
20100265493 | Pulsed Lasers in Frequency Domain Diffuse Optical Tomography and Spectroscopy - A diffuse optical tomography system incorporating a mode-locked, tunable laser produces pulsed light that may be used to interrogate tissue with high spatial and spectral resolution. The detection signal may be heterodyne shifted to lower frequencies to allow easy and accurate measurement of phase and amplitude. Embodiments incorporating wavelength-swept, tunable, lasers and embodiments using broadband photonic fiber lasers with spectrally-sensitive detectors are described. | 10-21-2010 |
20110034806 | Systems And Methods For Combined Ultrasound And Electrical Impedance Imaging - A dual imaging probe | 02-10-2011 |
20110130656 | MICROWAVE IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION APPARATUS AND METHOD - Provided are microwave image reconstruction apparatus and method. An apparatus for diagnosing a breast cancer, includes: a plurality of antennas for inserting a breast and configured to transmit and receive the electromagnetic wave; an electromagnetic wave transceiver configured to receive phase and amplitude information of the electromagnetic wave; an initial distribution value provider configured to set an initial dielectric constant and conductivity distribution value for dielectric constant and conductivity of a breast of a patient and in the tank; a first image reconstruction unit configured to transform the amplitude information of the electromagnetic wave through log transform and to obtain a first image by calculating a phase and amplitude information value of electric field generated from the electromagnetic wave; and a second image reconstruction unit configured to transform the first image in a value in a complex number form and to transform values to a second image. | 06-02-2011 |
20110153254 | System And Method For Calibration For Image-Guided Surgery - A method of calibrating a transformation of ultrasound data in an imaging system from a first coordinate system into a second coordinate system, the method comprising applying a transformation having parameters. The parameters are calibrated by imaging a planar object, extracting points corresponding to ultrasound rays intersecting the planar object, and fitting the parameters such that the points when transformed by the transformation describe a planar surface in the second coordinate system. | 06-23-2011 |
20110275932 | Method And Apparatus For Depth-Resolved Fluorescence, Chromophore, and Oximetry Imaging For Lesion Identification During Surgery - A tomographic fluorescent imaging device for imaging fluorophores in biological tissues has a scanned laser for scanning the tissue and a camera for receiving light from the biological tissue at an angle to the beam at a second wavelength ten or more nanometers greater in wavelength than the wavelength of the laser. Use of both intrinsic and extrinsic fluorophores is described. Images are obtained at each of several positions of the beam. An image processing system receives the series of images, models a path of the beam through the tissue, and determines depth of fluorophore in tissue from intersections of the modeled path of the beam and the path of the received light. The laser is of 600 nm or longer wavelength, to provide penetration of tissue. The imaging device is used during surgery to visualize lesions of various types to ensure complete removal of malignant tumors. An alternative embodiment uses differences in intensity of fluorescent radiation from tissue as observed at different wavelengths to determine depth of fluorophore in tissue. An embodiment operates at multiple wavelengths to construct tomographic images of chromophores, such as hemoglobin, and is capable of dynamic imaging. | 11-10-2011 |
20120215093 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING PATIENT REGISTRATION WITHOUT FIDUCIALS - A method for providing patient registration without fiducials comprises the steps of: spatially placing an ultrasound image of a patient randomly at different starting positions relative to a preoperative image; creating an independent registration corresponding to each different starting positions, by optimizing a spatial transformation between the preoperative image and the ultrasound image to provide a first batch of registrations; executing a second registration to fine-tune the alignment between the preoperative image and the ultrasound image; and concatenating the spatial transformation to obtain spatial transformation between the patient in an operating room and a corresponding preoperative image. | 08-23-2012 |
20120274325 | Imaging By Magnetic Resonance Adsorption, Elastography And Tomography - A microwave imaging system provides superior breast imaging resolution by combining MR microwave absorption and MR-compatible microwave tomography calculations. These techniques may also be supplemented with magnetic resonance elastography calculations, for example, to facilitate quick multispectral imaging. | 11-01-2012 |
20130135450 | 3d Scanning Laser Systems And Methods For Determining Surface Geometry Of An Immersed Object In A Transparent Cylindrical Glass Tank - Systems and methods generate a 3D model of a surface of an object immersed in a transparent liquid within a stationary cylindrical transparent tank. First and second laser line projectors and a camera are rotated around a central axis of the cylindrical tank. The first and second laser line projectors each generate a laser line perpendicular to a plane or rotation and aligned with the center of rotation. The camera images the object. An image from the camera is captured at each of several angular positions of the camera relative to a reference position of the stationary cylindrical tank. The captured images are processed to determine, for each laser line within each image, a plurality of 3D positions where the laser line is incident upon a surface of the object. In embodiments, images are corrected with ray tracing or image warping and registration functions. | 05-30-2013 |
20130204118 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COLLECTION & USE OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE DATA & MICROWAVE DATA TO IDENTIFY BOUNDARIES OF INTEREST - A system and method for detecting permittivity and conductivity boundaries within a high resolution spatial image of a material is presented. Electrical properties of a material, such as permittivity and conductivity, may assist in identification of physical properties of the material. Structural boundaries within tissue may be identified in spatial images, such as MR images. Image reconstruction algorithms may combine these structural boundaries with microwave images of the tissue to determine the permittivity and conductivity parameters within the structural boundaries. In the case of soft tissue, the microwave images may be captured simultaneously with the spatial images. The microwave images may be taken at a different time from the spatial image for rigid tissue. The method may be employed for two dimensional or three dimensional image reconstruction. | 08-08-2013 |
20130338479 | Apparatus And Method For Surgical Instrument With Integral Automated Tissue Classifier - A method and apparatus is described for optically scanning a field of view, the field of view including at least part of an organ as exposed during surgery, and for identifying and classifying areas of tumor within the field of view. The apparatus obtains a spectrum at each pixel of the field of view, and classifies pixels with a kNN-type or neural network classifier previously trained on samples of tumor and organ classified by a pathologist. Embodiments use statistical parameters extracted from each pixel and neighboring pixels. Results are displayed as a color-encoded map of tissue types to the surgeon. In variations, the apparatus provides light at one or more fluorescence stimulus wavelengths and measures the fluorescence light spectrum emitted from tissue corresponding to each stimulus wavelength. The measured emitted fluorescence light spectra are further used by the classifier to identify tissue types in the field of view. | 12-19-2013 |
20140044333 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING REGISTRATION BETWEEN BREAST SHAPES BEFORE AND DURING SURGERY - A registration framework is presented that registers volumetric breast images captured before surgery with intraoperative surface images. The framework may be implemented using either image-based or model-based registration techniques. The method contains the steps of: identifying an air/tissue boundary from a volumetric image created at a first time; processing the volumetric image with an image filter to emphasize the air/tissue boundary; and registering a surface optically scanned image, with the filtered volumetric image, where the surface optically scanned image is created at a second time. | 02-13-2014 |
20140056498 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REGISTERING ULTRASOUND AND MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGES - A system and methods are presented for emulating the appearance of prominent features captured in ultrasound through directional dilation of a magnetic resonance gradient image along a direction determined by the relative ultrasound scan-head location with respect to the magnetic resonance gradient image in order to improve the robustness and reliability of registration. | 02-27-2014 |
20140276230 | POROELASTIC DYNAMIC MECHANICAL ANALYZER FOR DETERMINING MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS. - A system for determining parameters of porous media or material, which in an embodiment is biological tissue, includes an actuator and a displacement monitor. The actuator is adapted to apply a displacement to tissue at a particular frequency selected from a range of frequencies, and the force monitor adapted to monitor a mechanical response of tissue. The system also has a processor coupled to drive the actuator and to read the mechanical response, the processor coupled to execute from memory a poroelastic model of mechanical properties of the material, and a convergence procedure for determining parameters for the poroelastic model such that the model predicts mechanical response of the tissue to within limits. | 09-18-2014 |
20140362186 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CALIBRATION OF STEREO-OPTICAL THREE-DIMENSIONAL SURFACE-MAPPING SYSTEM - A system for, and method of, extracting a surface profile from a stereo pair of images obtained at an arbitrary setting S of an optical system, includes determining surface profile reconstruction parameters for images obtained with the optical system at a reference setting So of the optical system; determining warping parameters for a digital image processor for warping images obtained with the optical system at the arbitrary setting S into images corresponding to the reference setting So; obtaining the stereo pair of images from at least one camera of the optical system; warping the stereo pair of images into images corresponding to the reference setting So, and using the surface profile reconstruction parameters to determine the surface profile. In a particular embodiment, the surface profile is passed to a computer model of tissue deformation and used to determine an intra-surgery location of a tumor or other anatomic feature of tissue. | 12-11-2014 |
20140369584 | Method And Apparatus For Determining Tumor Shift During Surgery Using A Stereo-Optical Three-Dimensional Surface-Mapping System - A system and method for determining intraoperative locations of a lesion in tissue from lesion locations determined in preoperative imaging includes determining three dimensional locations of surface features of the organ in the preoperative images. A preoperative surface map is extracted from stereo images annotated with surface features from preoperative images. An intraoperative surface map of the organ is extracted from stereo images, and surface features are identified in the stereo images corresponding to surface features annotated into the preoperative surface map. Three dimensional displacements of the surface features are determined and used to constrain a computer model of deformation of the organ. In embodiments, the model of deformation is adapted or constrained to model locations and dimensions of surgical cavities using an optical flow method and/or locations of surgical instruments in the organ. The model of deformation is used to determine intraoperative locations for the lesion. | 12-18-2014 |
20140371600 | Apparatus For Meausring In-Vivo Mechanical Properties of Biological Tissues - An apparatus and method for measuring mechanical properties of tissue has a stereo optical surgical microscope with at least one objective lens and at least two digital cameras such that paired images obtained from the digital cameras form stereo pairs, and a digital image processing system adapted to determine surface topography of tissue from the stereo pairs of images and a resulting surface displacement map as a result from indentation. The apparatus has an one indenter; and mechanical modeling routines stored in memory of the image processing system, the mechanical modeling routines capable of constructing computer models of mechanical properties of tissue, and fitting parameters of the computer model to observed surface displacement maps generated by coregistering surface topography of tissue with and without the indenter positioned on the tissue. In an embodiment, fitted parameters of the computer model are displayed and used to adjust a surgical plan. An apparatus and method for measuring mechanical properties of tissue has a stereo optical surgical microscope with at least one objective lens and at least two digital cameras such that paired images obtained from the digital cameras form stereo pairs, and a digital image processing system adapted to determine surface topography of tissue from the stereo pairs of images and a resulting surface displacement map as a result from indentation. The apparatus has an one indenter; and mechanical modeling routines stored in memory of the image processing system, the mechanical modeling routines capable of constructing computer models of mechanical properties of tissue, and fitting parameters of the computer model to observed surface displacement maps generated by coregistering surface topography of tissue with and without the indenter positioned on the tissue. In an embodiment, fitted parameters of the computer model are displayed and used to adjust a surgical plan. | 12-18-2014 |
20140375337 | Planar Probe And System For Measuring Dielectric Properties Of Biological Materials - A probe sensor has a printed circuit comprising a coplanar transmission line, a ground plane, a plated-through contact via, and a part-circular ring of ground vias surrounding the contact via. The coplanar transmission line and ground plane are formed on a first layer of the printed circuit, and the contact via and part-circular ring of ground vias are plated with a conductive biocompatible material on a second layer of the printed circuit. A system uses a network analyzer with the probe to measure electrical properties of biological tissue. Also described is a method of using the system to determine qualities of stored blood. | 12-25-2014 |