Patent ID: 7454242
Filing Date: 2008-11-18
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. A method of detecting the presence or absence of a tumour within a breast comprising skin and an interior volume, comprising the steps of: (a) illuminating the breast with microwaves from a plurality of locations and recording the reflections received at each location as a signal; (b) identifying a first skin reflection and a second skin reflection separated by a period of time and time-gating the signal by setting all data arriving before the first skin reflection and after the second skin reflection to zero; (c) creating a first estimate of reflections from the skin and subtracting said first skin reflections from each signal; (d) creating a second estimate of reflections from the skin for a single location from the signals received in at least two adjacent locations and subtracting the second skin reflections from each signal; (e) constructing a three-dimensional image of the interior volume from the signals showing the presence or absence of microwave reflecting tissues.