KEYWORDS: Transducers, Photoacoustic tomography, Acoustics, Signal detection, Imaging systems, Signal to noise ratio, Data acquisition, Quartz, Ultrasonics, Sensors
A dual-foci transducer with coplanar light illumination and acoustic detection was applied for the first time. It overcame the small directivity angle, low-sensitivity, and large datasets in conventional circular scanning or array-based photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT). The custom-designed transducer is focused on both the scanning plane with virtual-point detection and the elevation direction for large field of view (FOV) cross-sectional imaging. Moreover, a coplanar light illumination and acoustic detection configuration can provide ring-shaped light irradiation with highly efficient acoustic detection, which in principle has a better adaptability when imaging samples of irregular surfaces. Phantom experiments showed that our PACT system can achieve high resolution (∼0.5 mm), enhanced signal-to-noise ratio (16-dB improvement), and a more complete structure in a greater FOV with an equal number of sampling points compared with the results from a flat aperture transducer. This study provides the proof of concept for the fabrication of a sparse array with the dual-foci property and large aperture size for high-quality, low-cost, and high-speed photoacoustic imaging.
For the diagnosis and evaluation of ophthalmic diseases, imaging and quantitative characterization of vasculature in the iris are very important. The recently developed photoacoustic imaging, which is ultrasensitive in imaging endogenous hemoglobin molecules, provides a highly efficient label-free method for imaging blood vasculature in the iris. However, the development of advanced vascular quantification algorithms is still needed to enable accurate characterization of the underlying vasculature. We have developed a vascular information quantification algorithm by adopting a three-dimensional (3-D) Hessian matrix and applied for processing iris vasculature images obtained with a custom-built optical-resolution photoacoustic imaging system (OR-PAM). For the first time, we demonstrate in vivo 3-D vascular structures of a rat iris with a the label-free imaging method and also accurately extract quantitative vascular information, such as vessel diameter, vascular density, and vascular tortuosity. Our results indicate that the developed algorithm is capable of quantifying the vasculature in the 3-D photoacoustic images of the iris in-vivo, thus enhancing the diagnostic capability of the OR-PAM system for vascular-related ophthalmic diseases in vivo.
We developed a miniaturized, simple and full field-of-view photoacoustic/ultrasonic endoscopy system, and used a flexible coil to transmit the rotational torque from the rotary stage, which enables a 360o field-of-view imaging in vivo. The developed imaging catheter was fully encapsulated by a single-use protective polyamide tube. A B-scan rate up to 5 Hz (200 A-lines/B-scan) was achieved. Three-dimensional photoacoustic and ultrasound images of the rectum from a SD rat were acquired in vivo. It suggests that this PAE system can be of great interest for clinical translation for a variety of endoscopic applications.
Intravascular spectroscopic photoacoustic technology can image atherosclerotic plaque composition with high sensitivity and specificity, which is critical for identifying vulnerable plaques. Here, we designed and engineered a catheter of 0.9 mm in diameter for intravascular photoacoustic (IVPA) imaging, smaller than the critical size of 1 mm required for clinical translation. Further, a quasifocusing photoacoustic excitation scheme was developed for the catheter, producing well-detectable IVPA signals from stents and lipids with a laser energy as low as ∼30 μJ/pulse. As a result, this design enabled the use of a low-energy, high-repetition rate, ns-pulsed optical parametric oscillator laser for high-speed spectroscopic IVPA imaging at both the 1.2-μm and 1.7-μm spectral bands for lipid detection. Specifically, for each wavelength, a 1-kHz IVPA A-line rate was achieved, ∼100-fold faster than previously reported IVPA systems offering a similar wavelength tuning range. Using the system, spectroscopic IVPA imaging of peri-adventitial adipose tissue from a porcine aorta segment was demonstrated. The significantly improved imaging speed, together with the reduced catheter size and multiwavelength spectroscopic imaging ability, suggests that the developed high-speed IVPA technology is of great potential to be further translated for in vivo applications.
Photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) is becoming a vital tool for various biomedical studies, including functional and molecular imaging of cancer. However, due to the use of a focused ultrasonic transducer for photoacoustic detection, the image quality of conventional PAM degrades rapidly away from the ultrasonic focal zone. To improve the image quality of PAM for out-of-focus regions, we have developed compressed sensing based virtual-detector photoacoustic microscopy (CS-PAM). Through phantom and in vivo experiments, it has been demonstrated that CS-PAM can effectively extend the depth of focus of PAM, and thus may greatly expand its potential biomedical applications.
Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) plays a vital role in assessing the severity of atherosclerosis and has greatly enriched our knowledge on atherosclerotic plaques. However, it mainly reveals the structural information of plaques. In contrast, spectroscopic and molecular photoacoustic imaging can potentially improve plaque composition identification, inflammation detection, and ultimately the stratification of plaque vulnerability and risk. In this work, we developed an integrated intravascular ultrasound and optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (IVUS-PAM) system with a single catheter as small as 1 mm in diameter, comparable to that of existing clinical IVUS catheters. In addition, by using a GRIN lens to focus the excitation laser pulse, the system provides an optical-diffraction limited photoacoustic lateral resolution as fine as 19.6 micrometers, ~10-fold finer than that of conventional intravascular photoacoustic imaging and existing IVUS technology. The system employs a custom-made miniaturized single-element ultrasonic transducer with a dimension of ~0.5 mm, a centre frequency of ~40 MHz, and a fractional bandwidth of ~60%. The IVUS-PAM can simultaneously acquire co-registered IVUS images with an axial resolution of ~40 micrometers and a lateral resolution of ~200 micrometers. In the future, IVUS-PAM may open up new opportunities for improved high-resolution vulnerable plaque imaging and image-guided stent deployment.
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