Open AccessFeature coupling photoacoustic computed tomography for joint reconstruction of initial pressure and sound speed in vivo
Author(s) -
Chuangjian Cai,
Xuanhao Wang,
Ke Si,
Jun Qian,
Jianwen Luo,
Cheng Ma
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.10.003447
Subject(s) - speed of sound , acoustics , iterative reconstruction , computer science , imaging phantom , photoacoustic effect , optics , tomography , ultrasound , sound pressure , image resolution , inverse problem , computer vision , physics , materials science , photoacoustic imaging in biomedicine , mathematics , mathematical analysis
Photoacoustic imaging relies on diffused photons for optical contrast and diffracted ultrasound for high resolution. As a tomographic imaging modality, often an inverse problem of acoustic diffraction needs to be solved to reconstruct a photoacoustic image. The inverse problem is complicated by the fact that the acoustic properties, including the speed of sound distribution, in the image field of view are unknown. During reconstruction, subtle changes of the speed of sound in the acoustic ray path may accumulate and give rise to noticeable blurring in the image. Thus, in addition to the ultrasound detection bandwidth, inaccurate acoustic modeling, especially the unawareness of the speed of sound, defines the image resolution and influences image quantification. Here, we proposed a method termed feature coupling to jointly reconstruct the speed of sound distribution and a photoacoustic image with improved sharpness, at no additional hardware cost. Simulations, phantom studies, and in vivo experiments demonstrated the effectiveness and reliability of our method.