166 research outputs found
Visual Quality Enhancement in Optoacoustic Tomography using Active Contour Segmentation Priors
Segmentation of biomedical images is essential for studying and
characterizing anatomical structures, detection and evaluation of pathological
tissues. Segmentation has been further shown to enhance the reconstruction
performance in many tomographic imaging modalities by accounting for
heterogeneities of the excitation field and tissue properties in the imaged
region. This is particularly relevant in optoacoustic tomography, where
discontinuities in the optical and acoustic tissue properties, if not properly
accounted for, may result in deterioration of the imaging performance.
Efficient segmentation of optoacoustic images is often hampered by the
relatively low intrinsic contrast of large anatomical structures, which is
further impaired by the limited angular coverage of some commonly employed
tomographic imaging configurations. Herein, we analyze the performance of
active contour models for boundary segmentation in cross-sectional optoacoustic
tomography. The segmented mask is employed to construct a two compartment model
for the acoustic and optical parameters of the imaged tissues, which is
subsequently used to improve accuracy of the image reconstruction routines. The
performance of the suggested segmentation and modeling approach are showcased
in tissue-mimicking phantoms and small animal imaging experiments.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imagin
Eigenspectra optoacoustic tomography achieves quantitative blood oxygenation imaging deep in tissues
Light propagating in tissue attains a spectrum that varies with location due
to wavelength-dependent fluence attenuation by tissue optical properties, an
effect that causes spectral corruption. Predictions of the spectral variations
of light fluence in tissue are challenging since the spatial distribution of
optical properties in tissue cannot be resolved in high resolution or with high
accuracy by current methods. Spectral corruption has fundamentally limited the
quantification accuracy of optical and optoacoustic methods and impeded the
long sought-after goal of imaging blood oxygen saturation (sO2) deep in
tissues; a critical but still unattainable target for the assessment of
oxygenation in physiological processes and disease. We discover a new principle
underlying light fluence in tissues, which describes the wavelength dependence
of light fluence as an affine function of a few reference base spectra,
independently of the specific distribution of tissue optical properties. This
finding enables the introduction of a previously undocumented concept termed
eigenspectra Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (eMSOT) that can effectively
account for wavelength dependent light attenuation without explicit knowledge
of the tissue optical properties. We validate eMSOT in more than 2000
simulations and with phantom and animal measurements. We find that eMSOT can
quantitatively image tissue sO2 reaching in many occasions a better than
10-fold improved accuracy over conventional spectral optoacoustic methods.
Then, we show that eMSOT can spatially resolve sO2 in muscle and tumor;
revealing so far unattainable tissue physiology patterns. Last, we related
eMSOT readings to cancer hypoxia and found congruence between eMSOT tumor sO2
images and tissue perfusion and hypoxia maps obtained by correlative
histological analysis
High resolution tumor targeting in living mice by means of multispectral optoacoustic tomography
BACKGROUND: Tumor targeting is of high clinical and biological relevance, and major efforts have been made to develop molecular imaging technologies for visualization of the disease markers in tissue. Of particular interest is apoptosis which has a profound role within tumor development and has significant effect on cancer malignancy. METHODS: Herein, we report on targeting of phosphatidylserine-exposing cells within live tumor allograft models using a synthetic near infrared zinc(II)-dipicolylamine probe. Visualization of the probe biodistribution is performed with whole body multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) system and subsequently compared to results attained by planar and tomographic fluorescence imaging systems. RESULTS: Compared to whole body optical visualization methods, MSOT attains remarkably better imaging capacity by delivering high-resolution scans of both disease morphology and molecular function in real time. Enhanced resolution of MSOT clearly showed that the probe mainly localizes in the vessels surrounding the tumor, suggesting that its tumor selectivity is gained by targeting the phosphatidylserine exposed on the surface of tumor vessels. CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrates the high potential of MSOT to broadly impact the fields of tumor diagnostics and preclinical drug development
Fast Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT) for Dynamic Imaging of Pharmacokinetics and Biodistribution in Multiple Organs
The characterization of pharmacokinetic and biodistribution profiles is an essential step in the development process of new candidate drugs or imaging agents. Simultaneously, the assessment of organ function related to the uptake and clearance of drugs is of great importance. To this end, we demonstrate an imaging platform capable of high-rate characterization of the dynamics of fluorescent agents in multiple organs using multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT). A spatial resolution of approximately 150 µm through mouse cross-sections allowed us to image blood vessels, the kidneys, the liver and the gall bladder. In particular, MSOT was employed to characterize the removal of indocyanine green from the systemic circulation and its time-resolved uptake in the liver and gallbladder. Furthermore, it was possible to track the uptake of a carboxylate dye in separate regions of the kidneys. The results demonstrate the acquisition of agent concentration metrics at rates of 10 samples per second at a single wavelength and 17 s per multispectral sample with 10 signal averages at each of 5 wavelengths. Overall, such imaging performance introduces previously undocumented capabilities of fast, high resolution in vivo imaging of the fate of optical agents for drug discovery and basic biological research
Passive element enriched photoacoustic computed tomography (PER PACT) for simultaneous imaging of acoustic propagation properties and light absorption\ud
We present a ‘hybrid’ imaging approach which can image both light absorption properties and acoustic transmission properties of an object in a two-dimensional slice using a computed tomography (CT) photoacoustic imager. The ultrasound transmission measurement method uses a strong optical absorber of small cross-section placed in the path of the light illuminating the sample. This absorber, which we call a passive element acts as a source of ultrasound. The interaction of ultrasound with the sample can be measured in transmission, using the same ultrasound detector used for photoacoustics. Such measurements are made at various angles around the sample in a CT approach. Images of the ultrasound propagation parameters, attenuation and speed of sound, can be reconstructed by inversion of a measurement model. We validate the method on specially designed phantoms and biological specimens. The obtained images are quantitative in terms of the shape, size, location, and acoustic properties of the examined heterogeneitie
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