Publication Details
A fast all-optical 3D photoacoustic scanner for clinical vascular imaging
Zhang Edward (UCL)
Francies Olivia (UCL)
Kukliš Filip, Ing. (DCSY FIT BUT)
Allen Thomas (MedPhys UCL)
Zhu Jiaqi (MedPhys UCL)
Abeyakoon Oshaani (UCL)
Lucka Felix (CWI)
Betcke Marta (CS UCL)
Jaroš Jiří, doc. Ing., Ph.D. (DCSY FIT BUT)
Arridge Simon, prof. (UCL)
Cox Ben T. (UCL)
Plumb Andrew (UCL)
Beard Paul (UCL)
Photoacoustic imaging, Fabry-Perot ultrasound sensor, image reconstruction, real-time imaging.
The clinical assessment of microvascular pathologies (in diabetes and in inflammatory skin diseases, for example) requires the visualization of superficial vascular anatomy. Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) scanners based on an all-optical Fabry-Perot ultrasound sensor can provide highly detailed 3D microvascular images, but minutes-long acquisition times have precluded their clinical use. Here we show that scan times can be reduced to a few seconds and even hundreds of milliseconds by parallelizing the optical architecture of the sensor readout, by using excitation lasers with high pulse-repetition frequencies and by exploiting compressed sensing. A PAT scanner with such fast acquisition minimizes motion-related artefacts and allows for the volumetric visualization of individual arterioles, venules, venous valves and millimetre-scale arteries and veins to depths approaching 15mm, as well as for dynamic 3D images of time-varying tissue perfusion and other haemodynamic events. In exploratory case studies, we used the scanner to visualize and quantify microvascular changes associated with peripheral vascular disease, skin inflammation and rheumatoid arthritis. Fast all-optical PAT may prove useful in cardiovascular medicine, oncology, dermatology and rheumatology.
@ARTICLE{FITPUB12979,
author = "Nam Trung Huynh and Edward Zhang and Olivia Francies and Filip Kukli\v{s} and Thomas Allen and Jiaqi Zhu and Oshaani Abeyakoon and Felix Lucka and Marta Betcke and Ji\v{r}\'{i} Jaro\v{s} and Simon Arridge and T. Ben Cox and Andrew Plumb and Paul Beard",
title = "A fast all-optical 3D photoacoustic scanner for clinical vascular imaging",
pages = "1--18",
journal = "Nature Biomedical Engineering",
volume = 8,
number = 10,
year = 2024,
ISSN = "2157-846X",
doi = "10.1038/s41551-024-01247-x",
language = "english",
url = "https://www.fit.vut.cz/research/publication/12979"
}