Quantitative photoacoustic tomography using illuminations from a single direction

Quantitative photoacoustic tomography is an emerging imaging technique aimed at estimating optical parameters inside tissues from photoacoustic images, which are formed by combining optical information and ultrasonic propagation. This optical parameter estimation problem is ill-posed and needs to be approached within the framework of inverse problems. It has been shown that, in general, estimating the spatial distribution of more than one optical parameter is a nonunique problem unless more than one illumination pattern is used. Generally, this is overcome by illuminating the target from various directions. However, in some cases, for example when thick samples are investigated, illuminating the target from different directions may not be possible. In this work, the use of spatially modulated illumination patterns at one side of the target is investigated with simulations. The results show that the spatially modulated illumination patterns from a single direction could be used to provide multiple illuminations for quantitative photoacoustic tomography. Furthermore, the results show that the approach can be used to distinguish absorption and scattering inclusions located near the surface of the target. However, when compared to a full multidirection illumination setup, the approach cannot be used to image as deep inside tissues.