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Abstract
.Given that breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the United States, it is necessary to continue improving the sensitivity and specificity of breast imaging systems that diagnose breast lesions. Photoacoustic (PA) imaging can provide functional information during in vivo studies and can augment the structural information provided by ultrasound (US) imaging. A full-ring, all-reflective, illumination system for photoacoustic tomography (PAT) coupled to a full-ring US receiver is developed and tested. The US/PA tomography system utilizes a cone mirror and conical reflectors to optimize light delivery for PAT imaging and has the potential to image objects that are placed within the ring US transducer. The conical reflector used in this system distributes the laser energy over a circular cross-sectional area, thereby reducing the overall fluence. This, in turn, allows the operator to increase the laser energy achieving better cross-sectional penetration depth. A proof-of-concept design utilizing a single cone mirror and a parabolic reflector is used for imaging cylindrical phantoms with light-absorbing objects. For the given phantoms, it has been shown that there was no restriction in imaging a given targeted cross-sectional area irrespective of vertical depth, demonstrating the potential of mirror-based, ring-illuminated PAT system. In addition, the all-reflective ring illumination method shows a uniform PA signal across the scanned cross-sectional area.
Highlights
The combined ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) tomographic imaging system described in this paper has broad imaging applicability
The all-reflective, ring illumination photoacoustic tomography (PAT) system proposed in this paper provides a practical, scalable, low fluence imaging system, capable of imaging tissue-mimicking phantoms with significant depth
The uniform PA signal between 10 and 20 mm underscores the effectiveness of omnidirectional ring illumination in providing a uniform fluence map within a targeted cross section
Summary
The combined ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) tomographic imaging system described in this paper has broad imaging applicability. Conventional B-mode US is one of the most widely used medical imaging techniques for screening various types of human tissues, and it is a highsensitivity, non-ionizing, and low-cost tool that can produce images in real time.[7,8] Yet its low specificity in breast screening can lead to unnecessary biopsies.[9,10] it is essential to Ultrasound tomography (UST), employing a ring-shaped US transducer, has shown promise for breast cancer screening.[11,12,13,14,15] PA imaging has demonstrated potential in detecting carcinomas[16,17] and angiogenesis due to tumor growth.[18,19] The addition of photoacoustic tomography (PAT) to the UST imaging can enhance a physician’s diagnostic capability by providing functional information about the tissue of interest. A significant challenge for PAT breast imaging is providing sufficient fluence for the desired cross section, while avoiding the maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limit for the tissue
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