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      Analysis of the potential for non-invasive imaging of oxygenation at heart depth, using ultrasound optical tomography (UOT) or photo-acoustic tomography (PAT)

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          Abstract

          Despite the important medical implications, it is currently an open task to find optical non-invasive techniques that can image deep organs in humans. Addressing this, photo-acoustic tomography (PAT) has received a great deal of attention in the past decade, owing to favorable properties like high contrast and high spatial resolution. However, even with optimal components PAT cannot penetrate beyond a few centimeters, which still presents an important limitation of the technique. Here, we calculate the absorption contrast levels for PAT and for ultrasound optical tomography (UOT) and compare them to their relevant noise sources as a function of imaging depth. The results indicate that a new development in optical filters, based on rare-earth-ion crystals, can push the UOT technique significantly ahead of PAT. Such filters allow the contrast-to-noise ratio for UOT to be up to three orders of magnitude better than for PAT at depths of a few cm into the tissue. It also translates into a significant increase of the image depth of UOT compared to PAT, enabling deep organs to be imaged in humans in real time. Furthermore, such spectral holeburning filters are not sensitive to speckle decorrelation from the tissue and can operate at nearly any angle of incident light, allowing good light collection. We theoretically demonstrate the improved performance in the medically important case of non-invasive optical imaging of the oxygenation level of the frontal part of the human myocardial tissue. Our results indicate that further studies on UOT are of interest and that the technique may have large impact on future directions of biomedical optics.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Biomed Opt Express
          Biomed Opt Express
          BOE
          Biomedical Optics Express
          Optical Society of America
          2156-7085
          19 September 2017
          01 October 2017
          19 September 2017
          : 8
          : 10
          : 4523-4536
          Affiliations
          [1 ]Department of Physics, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
          [2 ]California Institute of Technology, 1200 E California Blvd., MC 138-78, Pasadena CA 91125, USA
          [3 ]Tyndall National Institute, Lee Maltings, Dyke Parade, Cork, T12 R5CP, Ireland
          [4 ]Department of Physics, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
          Author notes
          Article
          PMC5654797 PMC5654797 5654797 300815
          10.1364/BOE.8.004523
          5654797
          29082082
          f4b7355f-23fe-4201-875a-c1dfa64eb02f
          © 2017 Optical Society of America
          History
          : 10 July 2017
          : 05 September 2017
          : 11 September 2017
          Funding
          Funded by: Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse 10.13039/501100004063
          Funded by: Lund Laser Center (LLC)
          Funded by: Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) 10.13039/501100001602
          Funded by: Vetenskapsrådet (VR) 10.13039/501100004359
          Categories
          Article

          (170.3880) Medical and biological imaging,(160.5690) Rare-earth-doped materials,(110.0113) Imaging through turbid media

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