Patent ID: 8744552

Claim:
A biopsy apparatus for use in a mammographic apparatus having an image capturing base for holding a breast of a subject thereon, a compression plate displaceable toward the image capturing base for compressing the breast, a radiation source for applying radiation to the breast compressed, and a radiation detector contained in the image capturing base for detecting radiation that has passed through the breast and converting the detected radiation into a radiographic image, the biopsy apparatus being arranged so as to insert a biopsy needle into a biopsy region of the breast and sample tissue from the biopsy region, the biopsy apparatus comprising: a biopsy region positional information calculator configured to calculate a three-dimensional position of the biopsy region based on at least two radiographic images acquired from the radiation detector when the radiation is applied in different directions to the breast from the radiation source; a biopsy needle moving mechanism configured to move the biopsy needle along three mutually perpendicular axes and/or configured to turn the biopsy needle obliquely with respect to the breast; a biopsy needle positional information calculator configured to calculate a three-dimensional position of the biopsy needle; a compression plate positional information calculator configured to calculate a position of the compression plate with respect to the image capturing base, the position of the compression plate representing thickness information of the breast compressed; and a traveled distance calculator configured to determine that the biopsy needle pierces the breast according to an oblique piercing process or a vertical piercing process, based on the position of the compression plate, and configured to calculate a distance over which the biopsy needle moves with respect to the biopsy region in the determined piercing process based on the three-dimensional position of the biopsy needle and the three-dimensional position of the biopsy region, wherein the biopsy needle moving mechanism is configured to determine whether to turn the biopsy needle or not based on the position of the compression plate, and wherein on condition that the biopsy needle moving mechanism turns the biopsy needle, the biopsy needle positional information calculator is configured to calculate the three-dimensional position of the biopsy needle based on a turning angle of the biopsy needle.