Photoacoustic probe
AssigneePurdue Research Foundation
InventorsCraig Jonathan Goergen, Gurneet Sangha, Evan Phillips, Nicholas James Hale
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein is a photoacoustic tomography (PAT) probe to direct light to various regions within the tissue of interest to improve image quality and remove cumbersome artifacts at their source. Particularly, a rotating PAT probe and method of using thereof to improve the photoacoustic penetration depth and signal to noise ratio in biological samples. Signal intensity at region of interest is increased by fine-tuning the fiber orientation with respect to the ultrasound transducer. Additional PA filter is used to prevent in vivo probe-skin artifacts.
Claims14
A photoacoustic tomography (PAT) bracket comprising an ultrasound transducer;
- a holder, which holds and translates the ultrasound transducer;
- force sensors, which are coupled to the holder and provide information about a force applied by the ultrasound transducer on the skin of a subject of interest;
- and two rotating fiber arms coupled to the holder, wherein both rotating fiber arms are juxtaposed with respect to the holder at a pivoting point, and wherein each of the two rotating fiber arms to holds a fiber optic bundle and rotates the fiber optic bundle and laser light projections thereof such that the laser projections intersect at a selective focal depth of the subject of interest below the bracket.
A method to generate optimum photoacoustic signals to a subject of interest, comprising:
- a. providing a photoacoustic tomography (PAT) bracket comprising an ultrasound transducer;
- a holder, which holds and translates the ultrasound transducer;
- and two rotating fiber arms coupled to the holder, wherein both rotating fiber arms are juxtaposed with respect to the holder at a pivoting point, and wherein each of the two rotating fiber arms holds a fiber optic bundle and rotates the fiber optic bundle and laser light projections thereof;
- b. applying a fixed wavelength of light through the fiber optic bundles while rotating the fiber arms and translating the holder to fine tune the pivoting point;
- c. acquiring photoacoustic images at different focal lengths in the subject of interest to obtain images with increased photon density at various depths;
- and
- d. applying digital image processing algorithms to concatenate all images obtained in (c) to construct a photoacoustic image with improved photon density throughout the photoacoustic image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.