We investigate the feasibility of using iron oxide nanoparticles as a contrast agent for radiofrequency (RF) induced thermoacoustic tomography. Aqueous colloids of iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles have been synthesized and characterized. The synthesis method yielded citrate-stabilized, spherical particles with a diameter of approximately 10 nm. The complex permittivity of the colloids was measured with a coaxial probe and vector network analyzer, and the microwave absorption properties were calculated by using a relationship between the complex permittivity and absorption coefficients. Using our pulsed thermoacoustic imaging system at 3 GHz, the time-resolved thermoacoustic responses of those colloids were measured and compared to that of deionized water. Finally, two-dimensional thermoacoustic images were acquired from iron oxide colloids in a tissue phantom. The iron oxide colloids produced an enhancement in RF absorption of up to three times that of deionized water at 3 GHz. The enhancement increased rapidly with decreasing frequency of the RF excitation source. A corresponding increase in time-resolved thermoacoustic signal of more than two times was demonstrated. Our results indicate that iron oxide nanoparticles have the potential to produce enhanced thermoacoustic signals and to provide molecular imaging with functionalized contrast agents for thermoacoustic tomography.
The effects of acoustic heterogeneities on thermoacoustic tomography (TAT) are examined and corrected. One assumption made in the existing reconstruction algorithms for thermoacoustic tomography is that biological tissue is acoustically homogeneous. In medical imaging applications, this assumption can cause blurring and distortion in the reconstructed images. This degradation of image quality can be compensated for by using an approximate distribution of the acoustic speed in the tissue. A method based on transmission ultrasound tomography, which is compatible with our thermoacoustic imaging setup, is developed to correct those effects. Experiments verify the validity of this method. The technique can be used to improve the image quality of thermoacoustic tomography.
We report a preliminary study of breast cancer imaging by microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography. In this study, we built a prototype of breast cancer imager based on a circular scan mode. A 3-GHz 0.3~0.5-μs microwave is used as the excitation energy source. A 2.25-MHz ultrasound transducer scans the thermoacoustic signals. All the measured data is transferred to a personal computer for imaging based on our proposed back-projection reconstruction algorithms. We quantified the line spread function of the imaging system. It shows the spatial resolution of our experimental system reaches 0.5 mm. After phantom experiments demonstrated the principle of this technique, we moved the imaging system to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to image the excised breast cancer specimens. After the surgery performed by the physicians at the Cancer Center, the excised breast specimen was placed in a plastic cylindrical container with a diameter of 10 cm; and it was then imaged by three imaging modalities: radiograph, ultrasound and thermoacoustic imaging. Four excised breast specimens have been tested. The tumor regions have been clearly located. This preliminary study demonstrated the potential of microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography for applications in breast cancer imaging.
High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has proved to be an effective minimally invasive surgical technology. In this study, we focus on the visualization of HIFU-induced lesions using microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography (TAT). TAT has high spatial resolution, comparable with ultrasound imaging, and high contrast, which is induced by differences in the microwave absorption rates between tumor tissue and normal tissue. TAT can, in addition, differentiate tumors before and after treatment. A single, spherically focused transducer operating at a center frequency of approximately 4 MHZ was used to generate the focused field. The lesion was generated in porcine muscle. A local-tomography-type reconstruction algorithm was applied to reconstruct the TAT image of the lesions. The lesion shown by gross pathology confirms the corresponding region measured by TAT.
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