Slit-enabled photoacoustic tomography (PAT) is a newly developed technique that improves the elevation resolution and signal to noise ratio of a linear array. The slit, placed along the transducer array focus, forms an array of virtual detectors with high receiving angle, which subsequently allows for three dimensional (3D) imaging with near-isotropic spatial resolution. Our development addressed the long-standing issue of high quality 3D imaging with a linear array and will have broad applications in preclinical and clinical imaging. This study presented the principle of slit-PAT and demonstrated its efficiency in phantom, animal, and human experiments.
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