Photoacoustic Imaging in Medicine – A Review

Abstract

This photoacoustic imaging (PAI) in medicine paper started with an introduction to PAI and the famous photoacoustic techniques including photoacoustic tomography (PAT), multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT), photoacoustic microscopy (PAM), raster-scan optoacoustic mesoscopy (RSOM), and photoacoustic elastography (PAE). A modest review about noncontact laser ultrasound (LUS), having the advantage of operator-independent image quality, has been also demonstrated. A concise review of most of PAI's medical applications is demonstrated including cancer screening (for breast, thyroid, ovarian, prostate, lung, and skin), tissue oxygenation measurements, brain imaging, imaging-guided surgery (IGS), and the guidance of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). Some safety considerations contributed with medical ultrasound and lasers have been then presented. In conclusion, more scientific and clinical development in the field of PAI is expected, and an increase in approved devices that utilize PAI's techniques in medical applications is also expected to serve wide sectors of medicine, whether diagnostic or therapeutic.

A Mathematical Model for Simulating Photoacoustic Signal Generation Process in Biological Tissues

“…PAI has been able to produce images almost free of speckle artifacts [1, 5, 6, 13 -15], in contrast to traditional ultrasound imaging [16 -23, 128] and optical coherence tomography (OCT) [24 -28]. PAI has gained a variety implementation techniques and applications through the last three decades [3,5,9,29,30]. For instance: photoacoustic tomography (PAT) [1, 2, 4, 31 -33], multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) [5] or multispectral PAT, light emitting diode (LED) based PAI [34], optical detection PAT (OD-PAT) or also named non-contact laser ultrasound (NC-LUS) [35 -37], photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) [30,38], optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) [39], acoustic resolution photoacoustic microscopy (AR-PAM) [30], raster-scan optoacoustic mesoscopy (RSOM) [5], LED based PA microscopy (LD-PAM) [40], Second generation PA remote sensing based microscopy [41], PA endoscopy which is providing molecular contrast at considerable depths allowing for simultaneous imaging of structural and functional information [5,42,43], PA topography through an ergodic relay (PATER) [44], and photoacoustic elastography (PAE) [45 -47].…”

“…PAI has gained a variety implementation techniques and applications through the last three decades [3,5,9,29,30]. For instance: photoacoustic tomography (PAT) [1, 2, 4, 31 -33], multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) [5] or multispectral PAT, light emitting diode (LED) based PAI [34], optical detection PAT (OD-PAT) or also named non-contact laser ultrasound (NC-LUS) [35 -37], photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) [30,38], optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) [39], acoustic resolution photoacoustic microscopy (AR-PAM) [30], raster-scan optoacoustic mesoscopy (RSOM) [5], LED based PA microscopy (LD-PAM) [40], Second generation PA remote sensing based microscopy [41], PA endoscopy which is providing molecular contrast at considerable depths allowing for simultaneous imaging of structural and functional information [5,42,43], PA topography through an ergodic relay (PATER) [44], and photoacoustic elastography (PAE) [45 -47]. PAI has a big contribution in cancer diagnosis [5,48,49] as instance in breast cancer [4,5,9,50], which has a high record in threatening human's health, mostly females [51,52], the second most frequent cancer worldwide following lung cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death and a major cause of cancer death among women [53 -55].…”

“…PAI has been able to help in a real-time assessment of tissue hypoxia [56]. PAI's guidance plays a strong role in more applications of Image-Guided Surgery (IGS) and High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) [5].…”

“…𝛁 is "del" or "napla" differential operator representing the gradient (grad), 𝛁 = wave generation and propagation which can be induced with ultrasonic transducers [5].…”

A Mathematical Model for Simulating Photoacoustic Signal Generation Process in Biological Tissues

“…PAI has been able to produce images almost free of speckle artifacts [1, 5, 6, 13 -15], in contrast to traditional ultrasound imaging [16 -23, 128] and optical coherence tomography (OCT) [24 -28]. PAI has gained a variety implementation techniques and applications through the last three decades [3,5,9,29,30]. For instance: photoacoustic tomography (PAT) [1, 2, 4, 31 -33], multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) [5] or multispectral PAT, light emitting diode (LED) based PAI [34], optical detection PAT (OD-PAT) or also named non-contact laser ultrasound (NC-LUS) [35 -37], photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) [30,38], optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) [39], acoustic resolution photoacoustic microscopy (AR-PAM) [30], raster-scan optoacoustic mesoscopy (RSOM) [5], LED based PA microscopy (LD-PAM) [40], Second generation PA remote sensing based microscopy [41], PA endoscopy which is providing molecular contrast at considerable depths allowing for simultaneous imaging of structural and functional information [5,42,43], PA topography through an ergodic relay (PATER) [44], and photoacoustic elastography (PAE) [45 -47].…”