Three-dimensional photoacoustic tomography based on the focal-line concept

J Biomed Opt. 2011 Sep;16(9):090505. doi: 10.1117/1.3625576.

Abstract

A full ring ultrasonic array-based photoacoustic tomography system was recently developed for small animal brain imaging. The 512-element array is cylindrically focused in the elevational direction, and can acquire a two-dimensional (2D) image in 1.6 s. In this letter, we demonstrate the three-dimensional (3D) imaging capability of this system. A novel 3D reconstruction algorithm was developed based on the focal-line concept. Compared to 3D images acquired simply by stacking a series of 2D images, the 3D focal-line reconstruction method renders images with much less artifacts, and improves the elevational resolution by 30% and the signal-to-noise ratio by two times. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm was first validated by numerical simulations and then demonstrated with a hair phantom experiment and an ex vivo mouse embryo experiment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Animals
  • Computer Simulation
  • Embryo, Mammalian / diagnostic imaging
  • Hair / diagnostic imaging
  • Humans
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods*
  • Mice
  • Photoacoustic Techniques / methods*
  • Signal-To-Noise Ratio
  • Tomography / methods*
  • Ultrasonography / methods*