Optoacoustic imaging of absorbing objects in a turbid medium: ultimate sensitivity and application to breast cancer diagnostics.

One of the major medical applications of optoacoustic (OA) tomography is in the diagnostics of early-stage breast cancer. A numerical approach was developed to characterize the following parameters of an OA imaging system: resolution, maximum depth at which the tumor can be detected, and image contrast. The parameters of the 64-element focused array transducer were obtained. The results of numerical modeling were compared with known analytical solutions and further validated by phantom experiments. The OA images of a 3 mm piece of bovine liver immersed in diluted milk at various depths were obtained. Based on the results of modeling, a signal filtering algorithm for OA image contrast enhancement has been proposed.

Focused array transducer for two-dimensional optoacoustic tomography.

Optoacoustic (OA) imaging utilizes short laser pulses to create acoustic sources in tissue and time resolved detection of generated pressure profiles for image reconstruction. The ultrasonic transients provide information on the distribution of optical absorption coefficient that can be useful for early cancer diagnostics. In this work a new design of wide-band array transducer is developed and tested. The array consists of 32 focused piezo-elements made of PVDF slabs imposed on a cylindrical surface. A single array element response to an OA signal coming from arbitrarily located point source is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The measured signals correspond well to numerically calculated ones. Focal zone maps of the elements with aperture angles 30 degrees and 60 degrees are presented and discussed; the resolution in direction perpendicular to the imaging plane is determined. Point spread function of the whole array is calculated using experimentally obtained signals from the sources located at different distances from the array. Backprojection algorithm is employed for reconstruction of the optoacoustic images. It is shown that the spatial resolution of the images yielded by the proposed array increases significantly compared to previous transducer designs.