A Virtual Imaging Framework for Three-Dimensional Quantitative Optoacoustic Tomography Using Stochastic Numerical...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Imaging
• Medical Physics
• Computational Modeling

Background:

• Optoacoustic tomography (OAT) shows promise for breast cancer diagnosis by visualizing tumor angiogenesis and hypoxia.
• Accurate image reconstruction in quantitative OAT (qOAT) is crucial for clinical applications but depends on measurement quality and imager design.
• Virtual imaging provides a cost-effective method for evaluating system designs and developing computational techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a comprehensive virtual imaging framework for breast qOAT.
• To extend a numerical breast phantom generator with skin tone variations and diverse lesions (benign and malignant).
• To enable end-to-end simulation for system design and computational method development.

Main Methods:

• Development of a virtual imaging framework for breast qOAT.
• Extension of a stochastic numerical breast phantom (NBP) generator to include skin tone variation and various lesions.
• Modeling of transducer spatial and acousto-electric impulse responses for end-to-end simulation.
• Public release of 1,020 NBPs and associated measurement data.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive virtual imaging framework for breast qOAT has been established.
• The framework successfully incorporates skin tone variation and both benign and malignant lesions into numerical breast phantoms.
• A case study demonstrated the framework's utility in comparing two different system designs.
• A substantial dataset of NBPs and measurement data is now publicly available.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework offers a versatile platform for advancing computational methods in optoacoustic imaging.
• It facilitates the optimization of system designs for improved breast cancer diagnosis using qOAT.
• The publicly available data will accelerate research in optoacoustic and optical imaging.