Fast full-view photoacoustic imaging by combined scanning with a linear transducer array.

We present a fast full-view photoacoustic imaging system for visualizing tissue structures using a linear transducer array with combined scan. In this system, a 128-element linear transducer array was used to detect photoacoustic signals by combined scanning of electronic scan and mechanical scan. An improved limited-field filtered back projection algorithm with directivity factors was applied to reconstruct the optical absorption distribution. The experiments of phantoms and in vivo blood vessels in a rat brain were performed with this system. And a clear view of the curve boundaries of objects and the network of blood vessels of rat's brain were acquired. The experimental results demonstrate the multi-element photoacoustic imaging system has the ability of imaging complicated structures of objects.