Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Connecticut, 371 Fairfield Way, Unit 2157, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA.
J Biomed Opt. 2011 Apr;16(4):046010. doi: 10.1117/1.3563534.
We present a photoacoustic tomography-guided diffuse optical tomography approach using a hand-held probe for detection and characterization of deeply-seated targets embedded in a turbid medium. Diffuse optical tomography guided by coregistered ultrasound, MRI, and x ray has demonstrated a great clinical potential to overcome lesion location uncertainty and to improve light quantification accuracy. However, due to the different contrast mechanisms, some lesions may not be detectable by a nonoptical modality but yet have high optical contrast. Photoacoustic tomography utilizes a short-pulsed laser beam to diffusively penetrate into tissue. Upon absorption of the light by the target, photoacoustic waves are generated and used to reconstruct, at ultrasound resolution, the optical absorption distribution that reveals optical contrast. However, the robustness of optical property quantification of targets by photoacoustic tomography is complicated because of the wide range of ultrasound transducer sensitivity, the orientation and shape of the targets relative to the ultrasound array, and the uniformity of the laser beam. We show in this paper that the relative optical absorption map provided by photoacoustic tomography can potentially guide the diffuse optical tomography to accurately reconstruct target absorption maps.
我们提出了一种基于光声断层成像引导的漫射光学层析成像方法，使用手持式探头来检测和描述嵌入在混浊介质中的深部目标。基于配准的超声、MRI 和 X 射线的漫射光学层析成像已经展示出了很大的临床潜力，可以克服病变位置的不确定性，并提高光量化的准确性。然而，由于不同的对比机制，一些病变可能无法通过非光学模态检测，但却具有高光学对比度。光声断层成像利用短脉冲激光束扩散穿透组织。当目标吸收光时，会产生光声波，并用于以超声分辨率重建揭示光学对比度的光吸收分布。然而，由于超声换能器灵敏度的范围很宽、目标相对于超声阵列的方向和形状以及激光束的均匀性，光声断层成像对目标光学性质定量的稳健性变得复杂。我们在本文中表明，光声断层成像提供的相对光吸收图有可能引导漫射光学层析成像来准确地重建目标吸收图。
