Frequency-domain techniques enhance optical mammography: Initial clinical results

Frequency-domain techniques enhance optical mammography: Initial clinical results

^*Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics, Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801-3080; ^†Carl Zeiss, Medical-Optical Instruments, D 73446 Oberkochen, Germany; and ^‡Department of Surgery and Surgical Oncology, Robert Roessle Hospital and Tumor Institute at the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Humboldt University, D 13122 Berlin, Germany

Abstract

We present a novel approach to optical mammography and initial clinical results. We have designed and developed a frequency-domain (110-MHz) optical scanner that performs a transillumination raster scan of the female breast in approximately 3 min. The probing light is a dual-wavelength (690 and 810 nm, 10-mW average power), 2-mm-diameter laser beam, and the detection optical fiber is 5 mm in diameter. The ac amplitude and phase data are processed with use of an algorithm that performs edge effect corrections, thereby enhancing image contrast. This contrast enhancement results in a greater tumor detectability compared with simple light intensity images. The optical mammograms are displayed on a computer screen in real time. We present x-ray and optical mammograms from two patients with breast tumors. Our initial clinical results show that the frequency-domain scanner, even at the present stage of development, has the potential to be a useful tool in mammography.

Footnotes

↵ § To whom reprint requests should be sent at the ∗ address.
Britton Chance, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
↵ ¶ Gratton, E., Mantulin, W. W., vande Ven, M. J., Fishkin, J. B., Maris, M. B. & Chance, B., Proceedings of the Third International Conference for Peace Through Mind/Brain Science, Aug. 5–10, 1990, Hamamatsu City, Japan, pp. 183–189.
ABBREVIATIONS:

LIMA,

light mammography apparatus;

PMT,

photomultiplier tube