Abstract
Clinical 2D photoacoustic (PA) imaging can be easily implemented in a traditional ultrasound (US) system. However, 3D PA imaging is still preferable because 2D B-mode PA/US imaging suffers from low reproducibility and high-operator dependency. Here, we demonstrate a compact clinical handheld 3D PA/US scanner using an 1D linear array US transducer combined with a mechanical scanning stage working via a Scotch yoke mechanism. The entire scanner measures just 100 × 80 × 100 mm3 and weighs only 950 g, so it can easily be operated by hand. Blood vessels and hemoglobin oxygen saturation images of different parts of the human body (e.g., neck, wrist, thigh, and instep) have been successfully acquired. The system can potentially be used for clinical applications in fields such as oncology, dermatology, nephrology, and internal medicine.
Highlights
Photoacoustic (PA) imaging, which utilize ultrasound (US) signals from objects that have absorbed light, has become a popular medical imaging technique
The tunable pulsed laser system (Phocus Mobile, OPOTEK, USA) is used at a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of 10 Hz, where the wavelengths can be tuned between every pulse by the fast tuning function, and the pulsed light beam is delivered through fiber bundles (TFO-VIS100SL46-2000-F, TAIHAN FIBEROPTICS, Republic of Korea), which is linearly distributed at the output
The arm is connected to the holder so that the holder is driven in the elevational direction with cosine component of the angular motion by the Scotch yoke mechanism, which is a reciprocating mechanism that converts rotational motion into linear motion
Summary
Photoacoustic (PA) imaging, which utilize ultrasound (US) signals from objects that have absorbed light, has become a popular medical imaging technique. PA images are created by receiving the US signals with a US transducer and using beamforming techniques to reconstruct the signals into images. Photoacoustic imaging (PAI, called optoacoustic imaging) can map the distribution of endogenous chromophores such as oxy-hemoglobin, deoxy-hemoglobin, lipids, water, and melanin [1,2]. PAI can be readily combined with widely-used US imaging on a single platform [8,9,10], creating a dual-modality PA/US imaging system that can simultaneously supply multi-parametric morphological, physiological, and molecular information [11,12,13,14,15,16,17]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call