Patent ID: 8454530

Claim:
A biopsy apparatus comprising: a radiographic image capturing apparatus including a radiation source for applying radiation to a breast of a subject, a radiation detector for detecting the radiation which has passed through the breast and converting the detected radiation into a radiographic image, and a radiation source displacing mechanism for displacing the radiation source relative to the radiation detector; and a biopsy needle positioning device including a biopsy region positional information calculator for calculating a three-dimensional position of a biopsy region of the breast based on at least two radiographic images obtained by irradiating the breast with the radiation from directions that are different from each other, a biopsy needle for piercing the biopsy region based on the calculated three-dimensional position of the biopsy region and sampling tissue of the biopsy region, and a biopsy needle holding mechanism for holding the biopsy needle, wherein the biopsy needle faces a radiation reception surface of the radiation detector, and at least in a scout image capturing mode in which the breast is irradiated with the radiation applied from the radiation source disposed on an axis perpendicular to the radiation reception surface by the radiation source displacing mechanism, the biopsy needle is held obliquely to the perpendicular axis and the radiation reception surface by the biopsy needle holding mechanism, wherein one of the at least two radiographic images comprises a radiographic image produced according to the scout image capturing mode, and wherein the other of the at least two radiographic images comprises a radiographic image produced according to the stereographic image capturing mode, in which the breast is irradiated with the radiation applied from the radiation source, which is disposed obliquely to the perpendicular axis by the radiation source displacing mechanism.