Claims
- 1. A method of determining a condition of a region of a tissue sample, said method comprising the steps of:
(a) obtaining a first set of spectral data corresponding to a region of a tissue sample using light incident to said region at a first angle; (b) obtaining a second set of spectral data corresponding to said region using light incident to said region at a second angle; (c) selecting at least one of said first set of spectral data and said second set of spectral data that is representative of said region of said tissue sample; and (d) determining a condition of said region of said tissue sample based at least in part on a subset of said at least one set of spectral data selected in step (c).
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first set of spectral data comprises reflectance spectral data and said second set of spectral data comprises reflectance spectral data.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one of said first set of spectral data and said second set of spectral data comprises fluorescence spectral data.
- 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining a third set of spectral data corresponding to said region using light incident to said region at a third angle.
- 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining each of a plurality of sets of spectral data in addition to said first set and said second set using light incident to said region at a unique angle.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said condition is a state of health.
- 7. The method of claim 6, wherein said state of health comprises at least one of the conditions of normal squamous tissue, metaplasia, CIN I, CIN II, CIN III, CIS, and cancer.
- 8. A method of determining whether spectral data obtained from a region of a tissue sample are affected by an artifact, said method comprising the steps of:
obtaining a first set of spectral data corresponding to a region of a tissue sample using light incident to said region at a first angle; obtaining a second set of spectral data corresponding to said region using light incident to said region at a second angle; and determining whether said first set of data is affected by an artifact based at least in part on a subset of said first set of data and a subset of said second set of data.
- 9. The method of claim 8, wherein said first set of spectral data comprises reflectance spectral data and said second set of spectral data comprises reflectance spectral data.
- 10. The method of claim 8, further comprising obtaining a third set of spectral data, where said third set of spectral data comprises fluorescence spectral data.
- 11. The method of claim 8, wherein said determining step comprises computing a difference between R1, a member of said first set of spectral data, and R2, a member of said second set of spectral data, and comparing said difference to a constant, where R1 and R2 correspond to at least approximately identical wavelengths.
- 12. The method of claim 11, wherein said difference is a percent difference.
- 13. The method of claim 8, wherein said determining step comprises computing N differences, |R1(Xi)−R2(Xi)|, optionally weighting each of said differences using at least one of R1(Xi) and R2(Xi), defining a maximum of a subset of said N optionally-weighted differences, and comparing said maximum to a first constant, where i=1 to N, N is an integer, Xi is a wavelength between about 360 nm and about 720 nm, R1(Xi) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to said wavelength Xi, and R2(Xi) is a member of said second set of data corresponding to said wavelength Xi.
- 14. The method of claim 13, wherein said determining step further comprises comparing R1(X1) to a second constant, where R1(X1) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to a wavelength X1 between about 409 nm and about 429 nm.
- 15. The method of claim 8, wherein said determining step comprises comparing R1(X1) to a constant, where R1(X1) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to a wavelength X1 between about 409 nm and about 429 nm.
- 16. The method of claim 8, wherein said determining step comprises comparing the quotient R1(X1)/R1(X2) to a constant, where R1(X1) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to a wavelength X1 between about 360 nm and about 720 nm, and R1(X2) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to a wavelength X2 between about 360 nm and about 720 nm.
- 17. The method of claim 16 wherein X1 is a wavelength between about 489 nm and 509 nm and X2 is a wavelength between about 533 nm and about 553 nm.
- 18. The method of claim 13, wherein said determining step further comprises comparing the quotient {(R1(X1)/R2(X1))/(R1(X2)/R2(X2))} to a second constant, where X1 is a wavelength between about 360 nm and about 720 nm, X2 is a wavelength between about 360 nm and about 720 nm, R1(X1) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to said wavelength X1, R2(X1) is a member of said second set of data corresponding to said wavelength X1, R1(X2) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to said wavelength X2, R2(X2) is a member of said second set of data corresponding to said wavelength X2.
- 19. The method of claim 18 wherein X1 is a wavelength between about 566 nm and about 586 nm, and X2 is a wavelength between about 589 nm and about 609 nm.
- 20. The method of claim 19, wherein said determining step further comprises comparing R1(X3) to a third constant, where R1(X3) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to a wavelength X3 between about 689 and about 709 nm.
- 21. The method of claim 13, wherein said determining step further comprises comparing a value Q to a second constant, where Q is an approximate slope of a plot of {R1(Xi)/R2(Xi)} with respect to wavelength, over a subset of a wavelength range of about 360 nm to about 720 nm.
- 22. The method of claim 15, wherein said determining step further comprises comparing a value Q to a second constant, where said value Q is an approximate slope of a plot of {R1(Xi)/R2(Xi)} with respect to wavelength, over a subset of a wavelength range of about 576 nm to about 599 nm.
- 23. The method of claim 13, wherein said determining step further comprises comparing R1(X1) to a second constant and comparing R1(X1) to R2(X1), where R1(X1) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to a wavelength X1 between about 360 nm and about 720 nm, and R2(X1) is a member of said second set of data corresponding to said wavelength X1.
- 24. The method of claim 13, wherein said determining step further comprises comparing R1(X1) to a second constant and comparing R1(X1) to R2(X1), where R1(X1) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to a wavelength X1 between about 489 nm and about 509 nm, and R2(X1) is a member of said second set of data corresponding to said wavelength X1.
- 25. The method of claim 18, wherein said determining step further comprises comparing R1(X3) to a third constant, where R1(X3) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to a wavelength X3 between about 360 nm and about 720 nm.
- 26. The method of claim 18, wherein said determining step further comprises comparing R1(X3) to a third constant, where R1(X3) is a member of said first set of data corresponding to a wavelength X3 between about 409 nm and about 429 nm.
- 27. The method of claim 8, wherein said determining step comprises comparing R1 to a first constant and comparing R2 to a second constant, where R1 is a member of said first set of data corresponding to a wavelength between about 489 nm and about 509 nm and R2 is a member of said second set of data corresponding to a wavelength between about 489 nm and about 509 nm.
- 28. The method of claim 8, wherein said artifact comprises a lighting artifact.
- 29. The method of claim 28, wherein said lighting artifact comprises glare.
- 30. The method of claim 28, wherein said lighting artifact comprises shadow.
- 31. The method of claim 8, wherein said artifact comprises an obstruction.
- 32. The method of claim 31, wherein said obstruction comprises blood.
- 33. The method of claim 31, wherein said obstruction comprises a portion of at least one of a group consisting of a speculum and a smoke tube.
- 34. The method of claim 31, wherein said obstruction comprises mucus.
- 35. The method of claim 8, wherein said tissue sample comprises cervical tissue.
- 36. The method of claim 8, wherein said tissue sample comprises epithelial cells.
- 37. The method of claim 8, wherein said tissue sample comprises at least one of a group consisting of colorectal, gastroesophageal, urinary bladder, lung, and skin tissue.
- 38. A method of determining whether spectral data corresponding to a region of a tissue sample is affected by an artifact, said method comprising the steps of:
obtaining a first set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to a region of a tissue sample using light incident to said region at a first angle; obtaining a second set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to said region using light incident to said region at a second angle; obtaining a set of fluorescence spectral data corresponding to said region; and determining whether any of said first set of reflectance spectral data, said second set of reflectance spectral data and said set of fluorescence spectral data are affected by an artifact based at least in part on at least one of the following: a subset of said first set of reflectance spectral data, a subset of said second set of reflectance spectral data, and a subset of said set of fluorescence spectral data.
- 39. The method of claim 38, wherein said determining step comprises comparing F to a constant, where F is a member of said set of fluorescence spectral data corresponding to a wavelength between about 469 nm and about 489 nm.
- 40. A method of determining a spectral characteristic of an artifact, said method comprising the steps of:
(a) at each of a first plurality of regions of tissue, obtaining a first set of reflectance spectral data affected by a known artifact; (b) at each of a second plurality of regions of tissue, obtaining a second set of reflectance spectral data not affected by said known artifact; and (c) determining a spectral characteristic of said known artifact based at least in part on said first set of spectral data and said second set of spectral data.
- 41. The method of claim 40, wherein said determining step comprises locating a wavelength at which there is a maximum difference between a mean of one or more members of said first set corresponding to said wavelength and a mean of one or more members of said second set corresponding to said wavelength, relative to a variation measure.
- 42. The method of claim 40, wherein said determining step comprises computing N differences, |μi(Aj(X1))−μi(Bk(Xi))|, and defining a maximum of a subset of said N differences, where i=1 to N, N is an integer, X1 is a wavelength between about 360 nm and about 720 nm, j=1 to M1, M1 is an integer, Aj(Xi) represents one of M1 members of said first set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to said wavelength Xi, k=1 to M2, M2 is an integer, Bk(Xi) represents one of M2 members of said second set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to said wavelength Xi, μi(Aj(Xi)) is a mean of said M1 members of said first set of data corresponding to said wavelength Xi, and μi (Bk(Xi)) is a mean of said M2 members of said second set of data corresponding to said wavelength Xi.
- 43. The method of claim 40, wherein said determining step comprises computing N quotients, [|μi(Aj(Xi))−μi(Bk(Xi))|/{σi2(Aj(Xi))+σi2(Bk(Xi))}0.5], and defining a maximum of a subset of said N quotients, where i=1 to N, N is an integer, Xi is a wavelength between about 360 nm and about 720 nm, j=1 to M1, M1 is an integer, Aj(Xi) represents one of M1 members of said first set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to said wavelength Xi, k=1 to M2, M2 is an integer, Bk(Xi) represents one of M2 members of said second set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to said wavelength Xi, μ(Aj(Xi)) is a mean of said M1 members of said first set of data corresponding to said wavelength Xi, μi(Bk(Xi)) is a mean of said M2 members of said second set of data corresponding to said wavelength Xi, σi(Aj(Xi)) represents a standard deviation of said M1 members of said first set of data corresponding to said wavelength Xi, and σi(Bk(Xi)) represents a standard deviation of said M2 members of said second set of data corresponding to said wavelength Xi.
- 44. The method of claim 40, wherein said determining step comprises computing N quotients, [|μi(Aj(X1i)/Aj(X2i))−μi(Bk(X1i)/Bk(X2i))|/{σi(Aj(X1i)/Aj(X2i))+σi2(Bk(X1i)/Bk(X2i))}5], and defining a maximum of a subset of said N quotients, where i=1 to N, N is an integer, X1i is a wavelength between about 360 nm and about 720 nm, X2i is a wavelength between about 360 nm and about 720 nm, j=1 to M1, M1 is an integer, Aj(X1i) represents one of M1 members of said first set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to said wavelength X1i, Aj(X2i) represents one of M1 members of said first set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to said wavelength X2i, k=1 to M2, M2 is an integer, Bk(X1i) represents one of M2 members of said second set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to said wavelength X1i, Bk(X2i) represents one of M2 members of said second set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to said wavelength X2i, μi(Aj(X1i)/Aj(X2i)) is a mean of M1 quotients Aj(X1i)/Aj(X2i) for j=1 to M1, μi(Bk(X1i)/Bk(X2i)) is a mean of M2 quotients Bk(X1i)/Bk(X2i) for k=1 to M2, σi(Aj(X1i)/Aj(X2i)) represents a standard deviation of said M1 quotients Aj(X1i)/Aj(X2i), and σi(Bk(X1i)/Bk(X2i)) represents a standard deviation of said M2 quotients Bk(X1i,)Bk(X2i).
- 45. A method of determining a characteristic of a region of a tissue sample, said method comprising the steps of:
(a) obtaining a first set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to a region of a tissue sample using light incident to said region at a first angle; (b) obtaining a second set of reflectance spectral data corresponding to said region using light incident to said region at a second angle; (c) determining whether at least one of said first set of reflectance data and said second set of reflectance data is affected by an artifact based at least in part on a subset of said first set of reflectance data and a subset of said second set of reflectance data; (d) rejecting at least one member of at least one of said first set of reflectance data and said second set of reflectance data determined in step (c) to be affected by said artifact; and (e) determining a characteristic of said region of said tissue sample based at least in part on at least one member of at least one of said first set of reflectance data and said second set of reflectance data not rejected in step (d).
- 46. The method of claim 45, further comprising obtaining a set of fluorescence spectral data corresponding to said region, and wherein step (e) comprises determining said condition of said region of said tissue sample based at least in part on at least one member of at least one of said first set of reflectance data and said second set of reflectance data and at least one member of said set of fluorescence spectral data.
PRIOR APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/394,696, filed Jul. 9, 2002, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60394696 |
Jul 2002 |
US |