Benjamin T Welch

US Patent:

RE43499, Jul 3, 2012

Filed:

Oct 27, 2010

Appl. No.:

12/913372

Inventors:

Douglas Arthur Kieper - Seattle WA, US
Stanislaw Majewski - Morgantown WV, US
Benjamin L. Welch - Hampton VA, US

Assignee:

Jefferson Science Associates, LLC - Newport News VA

International Classification:

G06K 9/00
A61B 6/04

US Classification:

382128, 378 37

Abstract:

An improved method for enhancing the contrast between background and lesion areas of a breast undergoing dual-head scintimammographic examination comprising: 1) acquiring a pair of digital images from a pair of small FOV or mini gamma cameras compressing the breast under examination from opposing sides; 2) inverting one of the pair of images to align or co-register with the other of the images to obtain co-registered pixel values; 3) normalizing the pair of images pixel-by-pixel by dividing pixel values from each of the two acquired images and the co-registered image by the average count per pixel in the entire breast area of the corresponding detector; and 4) multiplying the number of counts in each pixel by the value obtained in step 3 to produce a normalization enhanced two dimensional contrast map. This enhanced (increased contrast) contrast map enhances the visibility of minor local increases (uptakes) of activity over the background and therefore improves lesion detection sensitivity, especially of small lesions.

US Patent:

8249693, Aug 21, 2012

Filed:

Jul 16, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/218602

Inventors:

Douglas A. Kieper - Seattle WA, US
Benjamin Lawrence Welch - Hampton VA, US
Lee Holland Fairchild - Poquoson VA, US

Assignee:

Dilon Technologies, Inc. - Newport News VA

International Classification:

A61B 6/00

US Classification:

600436, 600407, 600425, 600426

Abstract:

A stereotactic gamma-guided localization system for imaging a suspected cancer and guiding a physician in the removal of tissue samples for biopsy. The gamma-guided localization system includes a three step procedure including localization, correlation, and verification. The localization system includes a gamma camera with a set of slant-hole collimators for producing stereo images of a region of interest. A positioning system including a fiducial marker is placed adjacent to the object to be imaged and held rigidly in place to provide correlation of the location of the region of interest relative to the fiducial marker. A gamma emitting marker is then positioned at the calculated location of the region of interest and imaged to verify that that the calculated position corresponds to the actual location. The positioning system can then be used to accurately position and support any other hardware that needs to be positioned at the region of interest.