Design and evaluation of a laboratory prototype system for 3D photoacoustic full breast tomography

Photoacoustic imaging can visualize vascularization-driven optical absorption contrast with great potential for breast cancer detection and diagnosis. State-of-the-art photoacoustic breast imaging systems are promising but are limited either by only a 2D imaging capability or by an insufficient imaging field-of-view (FOV). We present a laboratory prototype system designed for 3D photoacoustic full breast tomography, and comprehensively characterize it and evaluate its performance in imaging phantoms. The heart of the system is an ultrasound detector array specifically developed for breast imaging and optimized for high sensitivity. Each detector element has an acoustic lens to enlarge the acceptance angle of the large surface area detector elements to ensure a wide system FOV. We characterized the ultrasound detector array performance in terms of frequency response, directional sensitivity, minimum detectable pressure and inter-element electrical and mechanical cross-talk. Further we evaluated the system performance of the laboratory prototype imager using well-defined breast mimicking phantoms. The system possesses a 2 mm XY plane resolution and a 6 mm vertical resolution. A vasculature mimicking object was successfully visualized down to a depth of 40 mm in the breast phantom. Further, tumor mimicking spherical objects with 5 and 10 mm diameter at 20 mm and 40 mm depths are recovered, indicating high system sensitivity. The system has a 170 × 170 × 170 mm(3) FOV, which is well suited for full breast imaging. Various recommendations are provided for performance improvement and to guide this laboratory prototype to a clinical version in future.