Background:

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in America, accounting for 15 percent of all cancer deaths. Survival depends strongly on early diagnosis. The foremost breast cancer screening tool is the X-ray mammography. It is estimated that, each year, over 34 million mammograms are conducted in the United States. X-ray mammography can be used to detect variations in tissue density, and when an abnormality is detected, further tests are employed to detect the exact cause of the anomaly. X-ray mammography is often insufficient for the early detection of breast cancer. Consistent quality is technically difficult to produce and interpretations are variable and subjective. Dense breast tissue and breast cancer both appear white on a mammogram. Therefore, although conventional screening methods have been proven to reduce mortality in women above age fifty, the efficacy of mammography as a life-saving measure in young women is uncertain.

Summary:

In this invention, a mediating fluid provides electrical contact between the electrodes of an electrical impedance tomography (EIT) device and the skin of a body part to be examined. The height of the fluid is raised or lowered between impedance measurements, enabling tomographic images of the tissue under examination to be resolved mathematically for subsequent viewing. Tomographic planes are isolated by calculating differences between Cartesian models generated from impedance values measured at the plane of interest and at an adjacent plane.

Here, sets of impedance measurements are made of the body part in the mediating fluid, which provide experimental impedance values, and sets of impedance measurements are made of the mediating fluid alone, which provide reference impedance values. Separate impedance maps are modeled from the experimental and reference impedance values at each of the fluid levels at which impedance measurements were taken. The values of the reference impedance maps are subtracted from those of the experimental impedance maps to obtain the actual measured impedance values for the body part. A tomographic plane is isolated for viewing by adjusting the actual measured values for that plane through subtraction of the actual measured values for an adjacent plane.

Benefits:

- Increase the success rate in breast cancer detection

- No emotional burden ensuing from false-positive results

Applications:

- Potential to save lives by early and accurate detection of breast cancer

- Comfortable than traditional mammograms

Full Patent: Three Dimensional Impedance Imaging Device