Optimized Reconstruction Procedure of Photoacoustic Imaging for Reflection Artifacts Reduction

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Acoustic Physics

Background:

• Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is valuable for medical diagnostics like breast cancer detection and vasculature imaging.
• Image reconstruction in PA imaging is often degraded by boundary-reflected signals (BRS), causing artifacts and distorting source localization.
• Existing reconstruction methods struggle to mitigate the impact of BRS effectively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an optimized PA image reconstruction procedure that suppresses artifacts caused by BRS.
• To enhance the accuracy of PA source shape and location determination in medical imaging applications.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a novel image reconstruction approach involving the removal of BRS prior to standard PA image reconstruction.
• Conducted experimental comparisons between the conventional and the optimized reconstruction procedures using phantoms and an ex-vivo sample.
• Quantitatively evaluated image quality using the Distribution Relative Error (DRE) metric.

Main Results:

• The optimized reconstruction procedure significantly reduced artifacts in the reconstructed PA images.
• Qualitative assessment showed improved accuracy in the shapes of PA sources compared to the conventional method.
• Quantitative analysis revealed a significant decrease in DRE for the optimized method across phantoms and ex-vivo samples.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method effectively suppresses reflection artifacts in PA imaging.
• The optimized reconstruction process demonstrably improves the shape accuracy of PA sources.
• This advancement holds potential for more reliable and precise medical diagnoses using PA imaging technology.