Open AccessEffect of irradiation distance on image contrast in epi-optoacoustic imaging of human volunteers
Author(s) -
Gerrit Held,
Stefan Preißer,
H. Günhan Akarçay,
Sara Peeters,
Martin Frenz,
Michael Jaeger
Publication year - 2014
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.5.003765
Subject(s) - imaging phantom , irradiation , materials science , optics , ultrasound , clutter , biomedical engineering , transducer , medical imaging , contrast (vision) , medicine , computer science , artificial intelligence , acoustics , physics , radiology , telecommunications , radar , nuclear physics
In combined clinical optoacoustic (OA) and ultrasound (US) imaging, epi-mode irradiation and detection integrated into one single probe offers flexible imaging of the human body. The imaging depth in epi-illumination is, however, strongly affected by clutter. As shown in previous phantom experiments, the location of irradiation plays an important role in clutter generation. We investigated the influence of the irradiation geometry on the local image contrast of clinical images, by varying the separation distance between the irradiated area and the acoustic imaging plane of a linear ultrasound transducer in an automated scanning setup. The results for different volunteers show that the image contrast can be enhanced on average by 25% and locally by more than a factor of two, when the irradiated area is slightly separated from the probe. Our findings have an important impact on the design of future optoacoustic probes for clinical application.