Spectroscopic photoacoustic imaging

A spectroscopic imaging device, comprising:

• a light source for directing a photonic signal at a tissue treatment site;
• one or more transducers disposed over the tissue treatment site and in a return path for receiving an acoustic signal indicative of a temperature induced response of the tissue resulting from the photonic signal;
• a processor with photoacoustic logic for computing a necrotic extent indicative of a degree of necrosis of the tissue;
• and
• a rendering device for rendering a mapping of the computed necrotic extent by mapping the received acoustic signal to a visual rendering for quantifying the extent of ablation-induced necrosis with respect to a non-necrotic viable tissue:
• the processor further configured to compute the necrotic extent based on a fraction of quantified ablated tissue contrast over a total contrast from both ablated and non-ablated tissues based on a ratio attributable to respective different wavelengths corresponding to the necrotic and non-necrotic tissue, and visualizing the computed necrotic extent as a continuous colormap to highlight the necrotic tissue and extent.

A system for spectroscopic photoacoustic imaging of a tissue treatment region, comprising:

• a light source for directing a photonic signal at a tissue treatment site;
• one or more transducers disposed over the tissue treatment site and in a return path for receiving an acoustic signal indicative of a temperature induced response of the tissue resulting from the photonic signal;
• a processor with photoacoustic logic for computing a necrotic extent indicative of a degree of necrosis of the tissue, the photoacoustic logic responsive to the acoustic signal for imaging the tissue treatment site for distinguishing necrotic and viable tissue by computing the necrotic extent based on a fraction of quantified ablated tissue contrast over a total contrast from both ablated and non-ablated tissues based on a ratio attributable to respective different wavelengths corresponding to the necrotic and non-necrotic tissue;
• an output device for rendering a mapping for providing a necrotic extent indicative of a degree of necrosis for the imaged tissue in the tissue treatment site by mapping the received acoustic signal to a visual rendering for quantifying the extent of ablation-induced necrosis with respect to the viable tissue, and visualizing the computed necrotic extent as a continuous colormap to highlight the necrotic tissue and extent;
• and
• an ablation device configured for delivering ablation therapy to portions of the tissue region based on the rendered mapping.