Patent ID: 6671540
Filing Date: 2003-12-30
Classification: A61B,G16H

Abstract:
A method for screening a tissue sample of a patient to spatially locate cancerous tissue in an area of interest underlying skin, tissue, bone, or dura, comprising:positioning one or more illumination source and detector arrays in contact with the patient; illuminating the area of interest with the illumination source array(s) emitting electromagnetic radiation (emr) having at least one wavelength which interacts with a contrast enhancing agent; administering the contrast enhancing agent to the patient; detecting one or more optical properties of spatially resolved areas within the area of interest with the detector array(s) subsequent to administration of the contrast enhancing agent; and comparing the optical properties of the spatially identifiable areas within the area of interest subsequent to administration of the contrast enhancing agent to either one of corresponding optical properties of different spatially resolved areas of the area of interest or a control data set representing a corresponding one or more optical properties of tissue of different spatial areas identified by type and/or condition, whereby differences in the optical properties are characteristic of normal and cancerous tissue.