Patent ID: 8862208

Claim:
A monitoring system for use in managing non-invasive inspection of a region of interest on a patient's body to locate a predetermined abnormality, the system being associated with a non-invasive measurement unit for measuring data, the monitoring system comprising: a memory utility configured to store reference data comprising: at least one reference response of a body corresponding to a normal condition with respect to at least one abnormality to be detected, and at least one predetermined deviation function corresponding to at least one abnormality to be detected, said at least one predetermined deviation function having a shape characterized by a well-defined global extreme, such that a deviation-related parameter corresponding to the global extreme of the deviation function defines a threshold value for the at least one abnormality to be detected, and a processor utility configured and operable for carrying out the following: (i) analyzing first measured data including at least two measured data pieces from at least two first spaced-apart measurement locations respectively within a first sub-region of the region of interest and determining for each location a deviation parameter corresponding to deviation of the measured data piece from the reference response with respect to the at least one predetermined abnormality to be detected, (ii) determining, for each of said at least two of the measured data pieces of the first measured data, a relation between the determined deviation parameter and said deviation-related parameter corresponding to the global extreme of the deviation function, and (iii) generating a control signal based on the determined relations between the determined deviation parameters and said deviation-related parameter the control signal to the measurement unit, said control signal being indicative of a scan direction towards at least one second location of a second sub-region to be measured in the region of interest where a degree of the at least one abnormality to be detected is higher than in said at least two first locations; thereby providing a closed loop control of a scan direction towards one or more successive locations in the region of interest with higher degree of abnormality based on the analysis of the measured data from at least two preceding locations, and enabling the inspection to proceed through locations with increasing degree of abnormality while avoiding measurements at locations in the region of interest where a degree of abnormality is relatively low.