Patent Document ID: 7603171
Application ID: 11978045
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method to diagnose lung cancer in a medical patient, the method comprising: providing a measurement device operable to measure conductivity between a first reference point and a first interrogation point on the body of said patient; measuring the conductivity, between said first reference point and said first interrogation point, to obtain a first data-set as a function of time and over a period of time; and comparing at least one attribute value obtained from said first data-set to a previously determined corresponding attribute threshold in a table look-up operation to determine if said patient has lung cancer, wherein said measurement device is structured and arranged to provide computer control of contact pressure between a measurement electrode tip and the surface of said body at an interrogation point, and probe contact pressure is increased until the conductivity index shows a zero slope, at which point probe contact pressure remains substantially constant during a period of time, and further comprising: measuring the conductivity, between said first reference point and a first plurality of interrogation points, to obtain a first plurality of data-sets, each such data-set comprising conductivity values as a function of time and over a period of time; comparing a plurality of point-attribute values obtained from said first plurality of data-sets to corresponding previously determined attribute thresholds in a table look-up operation to determine if said patient has lung cancer; measuring the conductivity, between a second reference point and a second plurality of interrogation points, to obtain a second plurality of data-sets, each such data-set comprising conductivity values as a function of time and over a period of time; and comparing a plurality of point-attribute values obtained from said second plurality of data-sets to corresponding previously determined attribute thresholds in a table look-up operation to determine if said patient has lung cancer, wherein: the sum of said first plurality of interrogation points and said second plurality of interrogation points populate at least three point-attributes for use in said comparing step.