Briefs

Focus on Cytopathology Touches One of the Fastest Growing Areas of Diagnostic Testing

SAVANNAH, Ga., Aug 12, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Health Discovery Corporation ("HDC") (HDVY) today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Patent No. 7,383,237 on HDC's claims covering the use of Support Vector Machines (SVM's) in computer-aided image analysis for analysis of digitized microscopic images of medical specimens. This new patent is a continuation of HDC's Patent No. 6,996,549, which covers a broad range of uses of SVM's for image analysis.

The claims of HDC's newest patent focus on a method and computer system for analyzing medical images generated during microscopic evaluation of cytology specimens and tissue samples. Examples of commercial diagnostic and prognostic applications of the patented technology include circulating cell screening and cytopathology slide analysis, among others. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and/or circulating epithelial cells (CECs) in the blood of cancer patients have proven to be a strong, independent predictor of Overall Survival (OS) and Progression Free Survival (PFS). These cells can also be used for serial monitoring of patients for improved clinical management of metastatic cancer. Circulating cell analysis involves the generation of large numbers of microscopic "snapshots" of a sample chamber containing the patient's blood. Currently, a small number of these snapshots are then selected for visual examination by a technologist or pathologist. However, SVM-aided image analysis using the patented method could permit automated and rapid analysis of all of the sample images, greatly increasing the sensitivity and accuracy of such tests.

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