Assessment of a Single-Element Scanning System for Enhanced Photoacoustic Imaging of Brain Hemorrhage

The use of photoacoustic brain imaging for hemorrhage detection holds significant clinical importance. This study focuses on the performance of sensitivity and detection capabilities of a single-element scanning system, considering the remarkable signal-to-noise ratio of photoacoustic signals generated by a single-element transducer. By employing blood vessel-like phantoms and ex vivo brain phantoms, we demonstrated the superior efficacy of the single-element scanning method over the transducer array system in the context of brain hemorrhage detection. This research highlights the potential for enhancing hemorrhage detection sensitivity through careful design and optimization of the proposed method, thereby increasing its viability for clinical application.