Patent ID: 8406846

Claim:
A mammographic apparatus for imaging a patient's breast area, comprising (A) a seating device for seating the patient; (B) an upper body support device for supporting the weight associated with an upper body of the patient seated on the seating device; and (C) an image pickup device for picking up images of the breast area of the patient seated on the seating device and having the upper body supported by the upper body support device, wherein the upper body support device contacts and supports the peripheral portions of the breasts, wherein the upper body support device is a sternal plate contact device contactable by one of peripheral portions of the breast area of the patient's sternal plate, and wherein the image pickup device is a gamma-ray detector for receiving the patient's breast area and carrying out radiation image pickup by detecting gamma rays produced by a radioisotope introduced into the patient and having reached the breast area, and outputting gamma ray detection signals, said apparatus further comprising (I) an emission data collecting device for collecting emission data for RI distribution image acquisition according to the gamma ray detection signals outputted from the gamma-ray detector, and (J) an RI distribution image acquiring device for acquiring RI distribution images which are radiographic images of the patient's breast area based on the emission data collected by the emission data collecting device.