Enhancement of photoacoustic tomography in the tissue with speed-of-sound variance using ultrasound computed tomography

The speed-of-sound variance will decrease the imaging quality of photoacoustic tomography in acoustically inhomo- geneous tissue. In this study, ultrasound computed tomography is combined with photoacoustic tomography to enhance the photoacoustic tomography in this situation. The speed-of-sound information is recovered by ultrasound computed to- mography. Then, an improved delay-and-sum method is used to reconstruct the image from the photoacoustic signals. The simulation results validate that the proposed method can obtain a better photoacoustic tomography than the conventional method when the speed-of-sound variance is increased. In addition, the influences of the speed-of-sound variance and the fan-angle on the image quality are quantitatively explored to optimize the image scheme. The proposed method has a good performance even when the speed-of-sound variance reaches 14.2%. Furthermore, an optimized fan angle is revealed, which can keep the good image quality with a low cost of hardware. This study has a potential value in extending the biomedical application of photoacoustic tomography.

Combating acoustic heterogeneity in photoacoustic computed tomography:A review

Based on the energy conversion of light into sound,photoacoustic computed tomography(PACT)is an emerging biomedical imaging modality and has unique applications in a range of biomedical fields.In PACT,image formation relies on a process called acoustic inversion from received photoacoustic signals.While most PACT systems perform this inversion with a basic assumption that biological tissues are acoustically homogeneous,the community gradually rea-lizes that the intrinsic acoustic heterogeneity of tissues could pose distortions and artifacts to finally formed images.This paper surveys the most recent research progress on acoustic het-erogeneity correction in PACT.Four major strategies are reviewed in detail,including half-time or partial-time reconstruction,autofocus reconstruction by optimizing sound speed maps,joint reconstruction of optical absorption and sound speed maps,and ultrasound computed tomog-raphy(USCT)enhanced reconstruction.The correction of acoustic heterogeneity helps improve the imaging performance of PACT.

Flexible fiber-laser ultrasound sensor for multiscale photoacoustic imaging

Photoacoustic imag ing(PAI)is a nonin vasive biomedical imag ing tech no logy capable of multiscale imag ing of biological samples from orga ns dow n to cells.Multiscale PAI requires differe nt ultraso und tra nsducers that are flat or focused because the current widely-used piezoelectric transducers are rigid and lack the flexibility to tune their spatial ultrasound responses.Inspired by the rapidly-developing flexible photonics,we exploited the inherent flexibility and low-loss features of optical fibers to develop a flexible fiber-laser ultrasound sensor(FUS)for multiscale PAI.By simply bending the fiber laser from straight to curved geometry,the spatial ultraso und resp onse of the FUS can be tuned for both wide-view optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy at optical diffraction-limited depth(~1 mm)and photoacoustic computed tomography at optical dissipation-limited depth of several centimeters.A radio-frequency demodulation was employed to get the readout of the beat frequency variation of two orthogonal polarization modes in the FUS output,which ensures low-noise and stable ultrasound detection.Compared to traditional piezoelectrical transducers with fixed ultrasound responses once manufactured,the flexible FUS provides the freedom to design multiscale PAI modalities including wearable microscope,intravascular endoscopy,and portable tomography system,which is attractive to fundamental biologic-al/medical studies and clinical applications.

声速不均匀介质热声成像的声场仿真

为了精确表示声速不均匀介质热声成像的声场,提出了一种时域有限差分(FDTD)仿真方法。先用FDTD将热声成像的基本方程离散化,给出描述热声成像的离散差分方程;再对电磁波脉冲进行两次修正,以消除高频电磁波引入的计算误差。计算机仿真研究的结果表明:当介质声速不均匀时,FDTD仿真方法其准确度高于目前常用的飞行时间法。在仿真实验条件下,当介质的声速差异大于50%时,FDTD法的误差比飞行时间法小十倍以上。可见,FDTD方法是一种有效的热声成像声场仿真方法,可以为声速不均匀介质热声成像算法的研究提供理论基础。

生物声学成像中声速不均匀性解决方法的研究进展

对于以超声波为载体的生物医学声学成像(如超声、光声和磁声成像等)技术,为了简化问题,常在假设待测组织内声速恒定的前提下,重建组织内的声阻抗、光吸收分布、光学特性参数分布或者电导率分布等。但是,实际生物组织内部的声速是存在差异的(最大可达10%),因而在此假设前提下重建出的图像通常是不准确的。在介绍声速不均匀性对声学图像重建影响的基础上,对超声、光声和磁声成像中解决声速不均匀问题的主要方法,特别是光声层析成像中重建组织内声速分布的主要方法进行总结和归纳,讨论各自的优点和不足,并展望未来的可能发展方向。

用于乳腺超声透射断层成像的飞行时间精确计算方法

目的:针对乳腺超声透射断层成像,提出一种精确计算超声波飞行时间(TOF)的方法,用于乳腺声速图像的高质量重建。方法:利用k-wave平台设置超声透射断层扫描环境,获取两种不同复杂度的数字乳腺体模的扫描数据,分别使用提出的极值点法及常用的阈值法、过零点法和峰值法计算出TOF,并借助滤波反投影算法重建声速图像。结果:简单体模的成像实验表明,利用峰值法计算的TOF难以重建出完整的声速图像。复杂体模的成像实验表明,利用极值点法计算的TOF重建出的声速图像在均方根误差和结构相似度指数上均最优,与阈值法和过零点法相比,极值点法对应均方根误差分别减少了6.32%、1.26%,结构相似度指数分别增加了3.31%、6.63%。结论:本研究提出的极值点法能够精确计算出TOF,有助于乳腺超声透射断层成像进行高质量的声速图像重建。

基于超声断层成像的小动物器官声速成像

声速是表征组织的一个重要声学参数。我们开发了一种超声断层成像(USCT)系统,用于小动物器官的体外声速成像和评估。该USCT系统采用256个阵元的环形阵列换能器,并允许所有通道同时进行信号传输和接收。该方法不需要复杂的样品制备程序,测量结果准确。实验结果表明,该方法测量的离体大鼠脑、心、肝、脾、肾的声速与已发表的数据接近。这项工作展示了一种新的声速成像方法,并具有在体应用潜力。

JIR-Net:用于光声层析图像重建的联合迭代重建网络

目的 高质量的图像重建是光声层析成像(photoacoustic tomography,PAT)技术的关键,有限角度稀疏测量和组织非均匀的声学特性都会影响重建图像质量。采用迭代重建技术可在一定程度上提高图像质量,但是其结果依赖于有关成像目标的先验假设模型。而且在迭代优化过程中需要反复计算前向成像算子及其伴随算子,因此计算成本较高,需要合理选择正则化方法及其参数。为了解决该问题,提出一种根据不完备光声测量信号联合重建光吸收能量分布图和声速分布图的深度学习方法。方法 设计并搭建基于学习迭代策略的联合迭代重建网络(joint iterative reconstruction network,JIR-Net),网络由4个结构单元组成,每个单元包括特征提取、特征融合和重建3个模块。网络的输入是探测器在成像平面中采集的不完备光声信号和预设的常数声速,输出是重建的光吸收能量分布图和声速分布图。分别构建仿真、仿体和在体数据集,用于训练、验证和测试网络。在训练网络的过程中,将光吸收能量密度和声速的梯度下降信息整合到网络训练中,并利用反向传播梯度下降法求解非线性最小二乘问题。结果 数值仿真、仿体和在体实验结果表明:与交替优化法、U-Net后处理法和深度梯度下降法相比,JIR-Net重建的光吸收能量分布图的结构相似度可分别提高约39.5%、26.4%和7.6%,峰值信噪比可分别提高约95.6%、71.4%和15.5%。与交替优化法相比,JIR-Net重建的声速分布图的结构相似度和峰值信噪比可分别提高约34.4%和22.6%。结论 JIR-Net解决了由于有限角度稀疏测量和组织声速分布不均匀所致的光声图像质量下降问题,实现了从光声信号到高质量光吸收能量分布图和声速分布图的映射。

光声计算断层图像重建中声速异质性补偿方法

光声计算断层成像是近年发展起来的一种非入侵式和非电离式的新型生物医学成像方法,其临床应用对成像精度要求较高。生物组织内声速分布的不均匀性时常造成重建的光声图像中存在较为严重的伪影。实现光声IP和声速分布的联合重建是改善成像效果、去除成像伪影的重要途径之一,也是仅通过光声单一模态的信息获取就可以获得多模态信息(包括光学和声学信息)的崭新途径。总结了几种本研究组近年来开发的光声-声速联合重建方法,包括基于特征耦合、基于波前整形以及基于信号互补的方法。同时,分析了这几种方法的优劣势和适用场景,以期帮助人们更好地利用这些方法解决光声图像质量提高和多模态图像获取的问题。