Method of in vivo examination of organ functions

Claim 1

The method of examining a selected portion of an organ through which blood circulates, to obtain quantitative information about a function of the organ, which method is characterized by: A. injecting into the blood stream entering said portion of the organ a predetermined quantity of a substance that can affect the response of a radiation responsive medium to X-ray radiation; B. on a radiation responsive medium located at a plane at one side of the organ producing a radiological image of at least said portion of the organ with the use of radiation from an Xray source which is spaced to the other side of the organ at a distance such that radiation therefrom reaches all portions of the image at said plane along paths of substantially equal lengths, so that variations in blackness across the image have a consistent relationship to variations in the concentration of said substance across the projected area of the organ; C. successively scanning incrementally small areas of said image to produce an input signal having a magnitude that varies in correspondence with variations in blackness across the image; D. so amplifying said input signal that the resultant amplified signal has a magnitude that varies substantially in correspondence with variations in concentration of said substance across the projected area of the organ; and E. integrating the portions of said amplified signal that correspond to said portion of the organ, to obtain an output having a magnitude that represents the concentration of said substance in said portion of the organ.

Claim 2

The method of examining a selected portion of an organ through which blood circulates, to obtain quantitative information about a function of the organ, which method is characterized by: A. injecting into the blood stream entering said portion of the organ a predetermined quantity of a substance that can affect the response of a radiation responsive medium to X-ray radiation; B. on a radiation responsive medium located at a plane at one side of the organ producing a radiological image of at least said portion of the organ with the use of radiation from an Xray source which is spaced to the other side of the organ at a distance such that radiation therefrom reaches all portions of the image at said plane along paths of substantially equal lengths, so that variations in blackness across the image have a consistent relationship to variations in the concentration of said substance across the projected area of the organ; C. successively scanning incrementally small areas of said image to produce an input signal having a magnitude that varies in correspondence with variations in blackness across the image; D. so amplifying said input signal that the resultant amplified signal has a magnitude that varies substantially in correspondence with variations in concentration of said substance across the projected area of the organ; and E. integrating the portions of said amplified signal that correspond to said portion of the organ, to obtain an output having a magnitude that represents the concentration of said substance in said portion of the organ.

Claim 3

The method of examining the functioning of an organ through which blood circulates, which method is characterized by: A. injecting into the blood stream, at a point near where blood flows into a portion of the organ that is to be analyzed, a predetermined quantity of a substance that absorbs X-ray radiation; B. during at least an interval which immediately follows such injection and which is long enough to comprehend a representative cycle of blood flow through the organ, projecting X-ray radiation through the whole of said portion of the organ from a source of such radiation at one side of the organ to a medium at the other side of the organ which makes a response to such radiation that has a magnitude corresponding to the intensity of radiation falling thereon and which is disposed in a plane substantially normal to all radiation projected thereto, to thus produce an image of said portion of the organ; C. pRoducing a record, for each of a succession of instants during said interval, of the response to said medium to radiation projected thereto; D. for at least selected ones of such records

Claim 4

The method of examining the functioning of an organ through which blood circulates, which method is characterized by: A. injecting into the blood stream, at a point near where blood flows into a portion of the organ that is to be analyzed, a predetermined quantity of a substance that absorbs X-ray radiation; B. during at least an interval which immediately follows such injection and which is long enough to comprehend a representative cycle of blood flow through the organ, projecting X-ray radiation through the whole of said portion of the organ from a source of such radiation at one side of the organ to a medium at the other side of the organ which makes a response to such radiation that has a magnitude corresponding to the intensity of radiation falling thereon and which is disposed in a plane substantially normal to all radiation projected thereto, to thus produce an image of said portion of the organ; C. pRoducing a record, for each of a succession of instants during said interval, of the response to said medium to radiation projected thereto; D. for at least selected ones of such records