US Patent:
20090030618, Jan 29, 2009
Inventors:
Leo L. Cheng - Andover MA, US
Bruce Jenkins - Belmont MA, US
Chen-Lee Wu - Newton MA, US
Guangping Dai - Action MA, US
Elkan F. Halpern - Newton MA, US
Assignee:
The General Hospital Corporation - Boston MA
International Classification:
G06F 19/00
Abstract:
A system, method and software arrangement according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided which can use molecular profiles obtained from unaltered human tissue specimens for clinical purposes including disease diagnoses and treatment evaluations. For example, spatial distributions of chemical species including metabolites within the tissue may be obtained using radiological techniques such as magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging. Disease-specific profiles may be obtained by comparing the distributions of chemical species obtained in ex vivo tissues with pathological observations made on them using statistical analysis. The disease-specific profiles may then be correlated with in vivo or ex vivo molecular profiles to obtain spatial maps that can provide a more sensitive and accurate detection of diseased tissue. Thus, such exemplary systems, methods and software arrangements can include the ability to receive information relating to the distribution of at least three chemical species in the tissue of interest, compare this information statistically to a predetermined profile and, based on the statistical correlation between the information and the profile, determine certain characteristics of the tissue of interest such as, e.g., the presence or absence of diseased tissue.