Motion Compensation for 3D Multispectral Handheld Photoacoustic Imaging

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Imaging
• Photoacoustic Imaging
• Ultrasound Imaging

Background:

• Three-dimensional (3D) handheld photoacoustic (PA) and ultrasound (US) imaging offer volumetric data and reduce operator dependence compared to 2D methods.
• 3D multispectral PA imaging provides functional insights like hemoglobin concentration and oxygen saturation (sO2) for various diseases.
• Motion artifacts significantly degrade the accuracy of PA morphology and physiological parameter quantification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel motion compensation method for 3D PA/US imaging.
• To correct motion artifacts in both axial and lateral directions using structural US information.
• To enhance the accuracy of functional parameters derived from multispectral PA imaging.

Main Methods:

• Proposed a motion compensation algorithm utilizing structural US data for PA image correction.
• Performed 3D PA/US imaging experiments on a tissue-mimicking phantom and a human wrist.
• Evaluated the effectiveness of motion compensation on spectral unmixing and physiological parameter accuracy.

Main Results:

• Successfully corrected structural motions and quantified hemoglobin oxygen saturation (sO2) values.
• Demonstrated significant reduction of motion artifacts in PA images.
• Verified improved accuracy of spectral unmixing post-motion compensation.

Conclusions:

• The proposed motion compensation method effectively removes motion artifacts in 3D PA/US imaging.
• This technique enhances the reliability of functional information derived from multispectral PA imaging.
• The method holds promise for clinical applications in oncology and vascular disease diagnosis.