Multispectral photoacoustic coded excitation imaging using unipolar orthogonal Golay codes

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Photoacoustic Imaging
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Multispectral photoacoustic imaging offers rich functional information.
• Traditional methods require sequential acquisition, limiting speed and SNR.
• Faster data acquisition is crucial for clinical translation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel method for accelerating multispectral photoacoustic data acquisition.
• To enhance signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in multispectral photoacoustic imaging.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed technique using phantom imaging.

Main Methods:

• Utilized unipolar orthogonal Golay codes as excitation sequences for laser diodes.
• Developed multispectral photoacoustic coded excitation (MS-PACE) for simultaneous dual-wavelength acquisition.
• Performed analytical estimation of SNR improvement compared to time-equivalent averaging.
• Imaged a two-dye phantom using MS-PACE with two laser diodes.

Main Results:

• MS-PACE enables simultaneous acquisition and separation of dual-wavelength photoacoustic data.
• Analytical models predict significant SNR improvement.
• Experimental results with a two-dye phantom validated the method's feasibility.
• Observed excellent agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental outcomes.

Conclusions:

• MS-PACE is a viable technique for speeding up multispectral photoacoustic imaging.
• The method offers improved SNR or faster acquisition times.
• Golay coded excitation provides an effective strategy for advanced photoacoustic measurements.