System and method for cabinet x-ray systems with near-infrared optical system

Abstract

A cabinet x-ray includes an x-ray tube, an x-ray detector, and a near-infrared optical system mounted onto the cabinet or positioned within the cabinet, for the production of organic and non-organic images. The computing device receives video data from the near-infrared optical system and determines, based on the video data an optical image displaying the captured real-time image or display images adjacently i.e. Picture-In-Picture (PIP). In particular, the present disclosure also relates to a system and method with corresponding apparatus for capturing a near-infrared image simultaneously with the x-ray image allowing a cabinet x-ray unit to attain and optimize images utilizing near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence for sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping in breast cancer patients to improve the Sentinel Lymph Node identification and procedure.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A cabinet x-ray and near-infrared (NIR) image system for obtaining x-ray images and NIR images of a specimen, the system comprising:
 a cabinet defining an interior chamber;   a display;   an x-ray system including:
 an x-ray source; 
 an x-ray detector; and 
 a specimen platform; 
   an NIR image system configured to capture an NIR image of the specimen, the NIR image system including:
 an NIR camera/detector; and 
 an NIR excitation light; and 
   a controller configured to:
 selectively energize the x-ray source to emit x-rays through the specimen to the x-ray detector; 
 control the x-ray detector to collect a projection x-ray image of the specimen when the x-ray source is energized; 
 selectively display the x-ray image on the display; 
 control the NIR image system to capture and collect the NIR image of the specimen; and 
 selectively display the NIR image on the display.