Automatic Palpation System for Breast Cancer: WAPRO-4

Abstract

The automatic palpation system for breast cancer : WAPRO-4 was constructed. The aim of this study and development is to realize the automatic palpation instead of it by hands, and to contribute to finding breast cancer in primitive stage. The WAPRO-4 system consists with three part; the measuring instrument, the automobile instrument, and the micro-computer system. The measuring instrument has four sensory rods which independently sink a mamma by their own weight : the distances of their sinking are measured by the linear differential transformers. The industrial versatile robot (Pans Robo A 6256 C ; Matsushita electric corp.) was employed as a automobile instrument which moves the measuring instrument. The micro-computer system (PC 9801 E ; NEC corp.) control the automobile instruments, collects data from the measuring instrument during automatic palpation and performs the diagnostic procedure. The software algorithm was constructed for detecting only of tumor without affection of breathing and chest wall. The clinical testings were performed attendant with the medical doctors. The tumors of the fifteen patients among sixteen were clearly detected. The tumor of only one patient could not be detected clearly because of so small in size. These results evidently showed the effectiveness of the WAPRO-4 system and the capability of the group tests of breast cancer by using the automatic palpation system, whereas also showed that the further efforts to make the system detect smaller tumor will be needed for practical use.