Three-dimensional breast anatomy imaging system

1. A diffuse optical spectroscopy system, comprising:

a tracking device including a first member and a second member;

a handheld probe including an avalanche photodiode (APD) for detecting optical properties of tissues in a region of interest of a patient and the first member of the tracking device communicating with the second member for determining locations of the handheld probe relative to the region of interest; and

a processor operable to

generate at least a two-dimensional representation using data of the optical properties and data of the determined locations of the handheld probe relative to the region of interest, wherein the data of the optical properties includes at least two of volume fractions of water, lipid, deoxygenated hemoglobin and oxygenated hemoglobin,

generate a color-coded surface in the two-dimensional representation, wherein the color-coded surface displays measured quantities corresponding to the at least two volume fractions and the measured quantities are displayed using different colors,

register serial images of the optical properties in the region of interest based on the determined locations, and

reconstruct a position and a size of a tumor below a surface in the region of interest of a later serial image using the registration of the serial images based on the determined locations.

2. The diffuse optical spectroscopy system of claim 1 , wherein the tracking device is a magnetic tracking device, an optical tracking device or a laser tracking device.

3. The diffuse optical spectroscopy system of claim 2 , wherein the first member is a sensor tip and the second member is a magnetic tracking base for generating a magnetic field, and a movement of the sensor tip in the magnetic field is sensed by the processor to determine locations of the handheld probe relative to the region of interest.

4. The diffuse optical spectroscopy system of claim 2 , wherein the optical tracking device includes an optical marker frame, a marker cluster and a camera, and a movement of the handheld probe including the marker cluster with respect to the position of the optical marker frame is detected when the handheld probe is positioned in a line of sight of the camera.

5. The diffuse optical spectroscopy system of claim 1 , further comprising a display device for displaying the at least two-dimensional representation.

6. The diffuse optical spectroscopy system of claim 1 , wherein a volume of the color-coded surface is equal to an average sampled volume in each measured quantity.

7. The diffuse optical spectroscopy system of claim 6 , wherein the surface is visually unfolded to obtain a flat display of information spanning an entire measured area.

8. A method for scanning a patient using a handheld probe of a diffuse optical spectroscopy system, the method comprising:

detecting optical properties of tissues in a region of interest of the patient;

determining locations of the handheld probe relative to the region of interest;

generating at least a two-dimensional representation using data of the optical properties and data of the determined locations of the handheld probe relative to the region of interest, wherein the data of the optical properties includes at least two of volume fractions of water, lipid, deoxygenated hemoglobin and oxygenated hemoglobin;

generating a color-coded surface in the two-dimensional representation, wherein the color-coded surface displays measured quantities corresponding to the at least two volume fractions and the measured quantities are displayed using different colors;

registering serial images of the optical properties in the region of interest based on the determined locations;

reconstructing a position and a size of a tumor in the region of interest of a later serial image using the registration of the serial images based on the determined locations; and

time-varying the two-dimensional representation using the registered serial images, wherein the time-varied representation shows a change of the measured quantities over time.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

performing a magnetic resonance imaging process; and

superimposing data obtained from the magnetic resonance imaging process on the at least two-dimensional representation.