Patent ID: 10638997

Abstract:
An echo-scintigraphic probe for medical applications and the method of merging images. It is constituted by the union of an ultrasound probe suitably integrated, both in geometric terms, and in terms of image processing, with a scintigraphic probe or gamma camera (3). With a single application of said probe, one is able to provide a double image of the object under examination. The ultrasound probe is housed in the head, above the plane of the collimator and kept projecting to favor the direct contact with the body part of the patient to be examined. The collimator is able to obtain images of the biodistribution of a radiolabelled drug by radiation with frontal incidence, maintaining the characteristics of the ultrasound probe. The probe is applicable to both clinical diagnosis and intraoperative diagnosis of cancer with the use of radio tracers. A guided diagnostic method is disclosed that realizes a functional integration of a pair of ultrasound and scintigraphic images concurrently obtained by the echo-scintigraphic probe.