Biomedical Photoacoustic Imaging With Unknown Spatially Distributed Ultrasound Sensor Array

• Published in: IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering 2021-10, Vol.68 (10), p.2948-2956
• Main Authors: Jiang, Yuting, Peng, Chenglei, Zhu, Yunhao, Ma, Xiang, Xu, Guan, Yuan, Jie, Wang, Xueding, Carson, Paul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical imaging; image quality; Image reconstruction; Imaging; Linear arrays; Medical electronics; Medical imaging; Neuroimaging; Optical arrays; Photoacoustic imaging; Position sensing; Sensor arrays; Sensors; spatially distributed ultrasound sensor array; Tissues; Transducers; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasound
• ISSN: 0018-9294; 1558-2531
• DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2021.3056715

Objective: With the growth of interest in different medical study on biological function, non-invasive photoacoustic imaging of biological tissue attracts the interests for researchers. To eliminate the limited angle effect of photoacoustic imaging based on ultrasound linear array, spatially distributed ultrasound sensor array is applied. The accurate sensor array position determines the quality of the imaging results. In this study, we proposed three methods based on photoacoustic and ultrasound signals to enhance the imaging quality using a 256-element full-ring array. Methods: Groups of photoacoustic and ultrasound signals are used to regress the position of each element sensor. Result: In phantom study and mouse brain study, photoacoustic imaging results can both yield details clearly with average error rate of less than 1% (50 \mu \text{m}). Conclusion: The performance of our three methods have proved that they can be potentially applied to other ultrasound-based medical imaging studies with unknown distributed positions of sensor array to enhance the imaging quality. Significance: The proposed methods can contribute to precise biomedical imaging with unknown distributed positions of sensor array in different application scenarios.