Mammographic x-ray apparatus and technique

Claim 1

The combination with radiation apparatus including a radiation source for presentation to a compressible tissue to be examined, and means responsive to radiations from said radiation source to provide a visual image of said tissue, of means for confining said tissue and for applying controlled compression forces thereto during exposure of said tissue to said radiation source, said means for confining said tissue including spaced wall means disposed to engage said tissue gravitationally suspended therebetween, at least one of said wall means comprising a sheet of material transparent to visible light to facilitate viewing of the positioning of the breast to ensure proper placement for radiographic display, means for shifting said wall means relative to each other to establish selectable spacings correlated with associated compression forces applied by said wall means to said tissue to establish a controlled through thickness of field of said tissue presented to said radiation source and to provide more uniform density in visual images produced.

Claim 8

The method of radiographic examination of the breast of a female subject under conditions such that internal breast structures are radiographically displayed in their most orderly anatomic arrangement to facilitate recognition of any distortions in the internal structures, and under conditions of reduced and substantially uniform tissue thickness to permit minimal radiation exposure, said method comprising the steps of: positioning the female subject so that the breast is gravitationally suspended between two spaced, generally vertically extending, relatively movable wall means defining an upwardly opening irradiation chamber therebetween, supporting a radiation-sensitive and responsive visual indicator means proximate of and paralleling one of said wall means and axially in the path of a radiation beam to be directed against the breast to be examined, shifting one of said wall means toward the other of said wall means gently to compress the gravitationally depending breast therebetween, viewing the gravitationally depending, compressed breast through a one of said wall means transparent to visible light to ensure proper placement of the breast for radiographic display, restraining the shiftable said wall means in a selectable position correlated with an elected professionally determined degree of controlled compression of the breast, and energizing a radiation source to transmit a radiation beam through the compressed, suspended breast to impinge upon and sensitize said radiation-sensitive and responsive visual indicator means.

Claim 9

The method of radiographic examination of the breast of a female subject under conditions such that internal breast structures are radiographically displayed in their most orderly anatomic arrangement to facilitate recognition of any distortions in the internal structures, and under conditions of reduced and substantially uniform tissue thickness to permit minimal radiation exposure, said method comprising the steps of: positioning the female subject so that the breast is gravitationally suspended between two spaced, generally vertically extending, relatively movable wall means defining an upwardly opening irradiation chamber therebetween, supporting a radiation-sensitive and responsive visual indicator means proximate of and paralleling one of said wall means and axially in the path of a radiation beam to be directed against the breast to be examined, shifting one of said wall means toward the other of said wall means gently to compress the gravitationally depending breast therebetween, viewing the gravitationally depending, compressed breast through a one of said wall means transparent to visible light to ensure proper placement of the breast for radiographic display, restraining the shiftable said wall means in a selectable position correlated with an elected professionally determined degree of controlled compression of the breast, and energizing a radiation source to transmit a radiation beam through the compressed, suspended breast to impinge upon and sensitize said radiation-sensitive and responsive visual indicator means.