Patent Document ID: 20140066760
Application ID: 13711377
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for characterizing a volume of breast tissue of a patient, comprising: introducing a contrast agent into the volume of breast tissue; scanning the volume of breast tissue with a ring transducer comprising a plurality of transmitters configured to emit acoustic waves towards a volume of contrast agent-enhanced breast tissue and a plurality of receivers configured to detect a collection of acoustic waves from the volume of contrast agent-enhanced breast tissue; receiving an enhanced acoustic data set derived from the collection of acoustic waves; generating an enhanced morphology rendering of the volume of contrast agent-enhanced breast tissue from the enhanced acoustic data set, wherein the enhanced morphology rendering represents a distribution of at least one of acoustic speed, acoustic attenuation, and acoustic reflection within the volume of contrast agent-enhanced tissue; identifying a region of interest within the volume of contrast agent-enhanced breast tissue from the enhanced morphology rendering; determining an enhanced prognostic parameter based on at least one of acoustic speed, acoustic attenuation, and acoustic reflection for the region of interest; and characterizing the region of interest based on a predictive model and the enhanced prognostic parameter, wherein the predictive model is evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic curve.