WIDE AREA SINGLE OR DUAL GUIDED BREAST TISSUE TOMOGRAPHY AND TOMOSYNTHESIS IMAGING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

摘要

A breast imaging system comprises: a wide area tissue receptacle adapted to be coupled to an imaging apparatus, the imaging apparatus having an imaging volume, the wide area tissue receptacle defining a wide area tissue volume, the wide area tissue volume at least partially intersecting the imaging volume to form a wide area tissue imaging volume, the wide area tissue receptacle having an opening that is sufficiently wide to accept an entire breast into the wide area tissue receptacle, the wide area tissue receptacle having a sealing interface below the opening adapted to create a seal between tissue and the wide area tissue receptacle; and a pump coupled to the wide area tissue receptacle, the pump adapted to apply negative pressure to the wide area tissue volume to form the seal between the sealing interface and the tissue, and the pump further adapted to apply negative pressure to pull the breast into the wide area tissue volume, a diagnostic volume being defined as a portion of the breast intersecting the wide area tissue imaging volume.