Motion Compensation for 3D Multispectral Handheld Photoacoustic Imaging

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) handheld photoacoustic (PA) and ultrasound (US) imaging performed using mechanical scanning are more useful than conventional 2D PA/US imaging for obtaining local volumetric information and reducing operator dependence. In particular, 3D multispectral PA imaging can capture vital functional information, such as hemoglobin concentrations and hemoglobin oxygen saturation (sO2), of epidermal, hemorrhagic, ischemic, and cancerous diseases. However, the accuracy of PA morphology and physiological parameters is hampered by motion artifacts during image acquisition. The aim of this paper is to apply appropriate correction to remove the effect of such motion artifacts. We propose a new motion compensation method that corrects PA images in both axial and lateral directions based on structural US information. 3D PA/US imaging experiments are performed on a tissue-mimicking phantom and a human wrist to verify the effects of the proposed motion compensation mechanism and the consequent spectral unmixing results. The structural motions and sO2 values are confirmed to be successfully corrected by comparing the motion-compensated images with the original images. The proposed method is expected to be useful in various clinical PA imaging applications (e.g., breast cancer, thyroid cancer, and carotid artery disease) that are susceptible to motion contamination during multispectral PA image analysis.

Review of Three-Dimensional Handheld Photoacoustic and Ultrasound Imaging Systems and Their Applications

“…Artifacts can degrade structural information. They can also deteriorate functional information such as sO 2 due to pixel-by-pixel spectral unmixing calculations [60]. For clinical translation, 3D imaging systems should mitigate motion contaminations to ensure accurate imaging and quantifications.…”

“…After correction, the structural similarity index (SSIM) was greatly enhanced (Figure 6a(ii)). Yoon et al [60] have proposed a 3D motion-correction method using a motor-scanning-based 3D imaging system. They applied US motion compensations by maximizing structural similarities of subsequently acquired US skin profiles.…”

“…Here, we aim to provide a detailed review of 3D handheld PA imaging systems. Our strategy involves classifying these systems into four scanning techniques-direct [30,, mechanical [10,[58][59][60][61][62], mirror [31,32,[63][64][65][66][67], and freehand [50,[67][68][69][70] scanning-and providing a comprehensive summary of the latest research corresponding to each technique. Freehand scanning involves image reconstruction through image processing techniques with or without additional aids such as position sensors and optical patterns.…”

Advanced Image Post-Processing Methods for Photoacoustic Tomography: A Review

“…For multimodal PAT-US imaging, much research on image post-processing have been proposed [28,[44][45][46][47][48][49]. PA-US imaging enables high quality multimodal images for a wide range of applications, where the alignment and coupling of the two modalities depends heavily on the application of post-processing techniques.…”

Video-rate endocavity photoacoustic/harmonic ultrasound imaging with miniaturized light delivery

“… 50 – 52 The technical similarities between PA and US imaging enable simultaneous acquisition of both types of images, with PA images offering valuable physiological information about the lesion’s photochemical characteristics, such as total hemoglobin and oxygen saturation. 52 – 57 This ability to detect changes in oxygen saturation proves beneficial in diagnosing urological and gynecological conditions, identifying peritumoral hypoxia in genital cancer, and detecting menstrual cycle-related lesions such as endometrioma or uterine fibroids.…”