System and Method for Acquiring Optoacoustic Data and Producing Parametric Maps Thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016199037-A1
Application number	US-201615077569-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 22, 2016
Priority date	Oct 12, 2011
Publication date	Jul 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method is disclosed for generating sinograms by sampling a plurality of transducers acoustically coupled with the surface of a volume of tissue over a period of time after a light pulse at one wavelength, and after another light pulse at a different wavelength, and for processing those sinograms, reconstructing at least two optoacoustic images from the two sinograms, processing the two optoacoustic images to generate two envelope images and generating a parametric map from information in the two envelope images. In an embodiment, motion and tracking are determined to align the envelope images. In an embodiment, at least a second parametric map is produced from information in the same two envelope images. In an embodiment an ultrasound image is also acquired, and the parametric map is coregistered with and overlayed upon the ultrasound image, and then displayed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising the steps of:
generating a plurality of sinograms, each being generated by sampling a plurality of transducers acoustically coupled with a surface of a volume for a predetermined period of time after a pulse of light having a predominant wavelength selected from at least two different predominant wavelengths, each transducer being associated with a channel in an optoacoustic imaging system; processing at least two sinograms, each corresponding to a different one of the at least two different predominant wavelengths to create at least two processed sinograms, the processing comprising one or more steps selected from the group consisting of: mitigating anomalous channels, mitigating common mode stripes, bandpass filtering, mitigating the system transfer function, normalization of dynamic range, normalization of energy, removal of interframe persistent artifacts, compensating for hardware time gain compensation, performing sub-band acoustic compensation and applying a transform operator; performing image reconstruction based upon the at least two processed sinograms to generate at least two optoacoustic images, the image reconstruction comprising one or more steps selected from the group consisting of: extract quadrature, sub-band acoustic compensation, and reconstruction; performing image post processing on the at least two optoacoustic images to generate at least two envelope images, the image post processing comprising one or more steps selected from the group consisting of: remove interframe persistent artifact, fluence compensation and complex magnitude; and generating at least one parametric map based upon the information contained in the at least two envelope images.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of generating at least one parametric map comprises:
determining motion and tracking to produce at least two aligned envelope images; and performing parametric calculations on the at least two aligned envelope images to produce the at least one parametric map.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
performing additional parametric calculations on the at least two aligned envelope images to produce an additional parametric map.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
generating a third parametric map, the third parametric map reflective of a combination of information in the at least one parametric map and the additional parametric map.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
receiving an ultrasound image representing the at least a portion of the volume; and coregistering and overlaying the ultrasound image with at least one selected from the group of: the at least one parametric map, the additional parametric map and the third parametric map; and displaying the coregistered image on the optoacoustic imaging system.

6 . A method comprising the steps of:
generating a plurality of multi-channel sinograms, each being generated by sampling a plurality of transducers acoustically coupled with a surface of a volume for a predetermined period of time after a pulse of light having a predominant wavelength selected from at least two different predominant wavelengths, each transducer being associated with a channel in an optoacoustic imaging system; processing at least two multi-channel sinograms, each corresponding to a different one of the at least two different predominant wavelengths to create at least two processed sinograms; performing image reconstruction based upon the at least two processed sinograms to generate at least two optoacoustic images; performing image post processing on the at least two optoacoustic images to generate at least two post-processed images, the image post processing comprising interframe persistent artifact removal; and generating at least one parametric map based upon the information contained in the at least two post-processed images.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
wherein the step of generating at least one parametric map comprises:
determining motion and tracking to produce at least two aligned post-processed images; and
performing parametric calculations on the at least two aligned post-processed images to produce the at least one parametric map;
the method further comprising:
performing additional parametric calculations on the at least two aligned post-processed images to produce an additional parametric map; and
generating a third parametric map, the third parametric map reflective of a combination of information in the at least one parametric map and the additional parametric map.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving an ultrasound image representing the at least a portion of the volume; and coregistering and overlaying the ultrasound image with the third parametric map; and
displaying the coregistered image on the optoacoustic imaging system.

9 . A method comprising the steps of:
generating a plurality of multi-channel sinograms, each being generated by sampling a plurality of transducers acoustically coupled with a surface of a volume for a predetermined period of time after a pulse of light having a predominant wavelength selected from at least two different predominant wavelengths, each transducer being associated with a channel in an optoacoustic imaging system; processing at least two multi-channel sinograms, each corresponding to a different one of the at least two different predominant wavelengths to create at least two processed sinograms; performing image reconstruction based upon the at least two processed sinograms to generate at least two optoacoustic images; performing image post processing on the at least two optoacoustic images to generate at least two post-processed images, the image post processing comprising fluence compensation; and generating at least one parametric map based upon the information contained in the at least two post-processed images.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
wherein the step of generating at least one parametric map comprises:
determining motion and tracking to produce at least two aligned post-processed images; and
performing parametric calculations on the at least two aligned post-processed images to produce the at least one parametric map;
the method further comprising:
performing additional parametric calculations on the at least two aligned post-processed images to produce the an additional parametric map; and
generating a third parametric map, the third parametric map reflective of a combination of information in the at least one parametric map and the additional parametric map.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
receiving an ultrasound image representing the at least a portion of the volume; and coregistering and overlaying the ultrasound image with the third parametric map; and displaying the coregistered image on the optoacoustic imaging system.

12 . A method comprising the steps of:
generating a plurality of multi-channel sinograms, each being generated by sampling a plurality of transducers acoustically coupled with a surface of a volume for a predetermined period of time after a pulse of light having a predominant wavelength selected from at least two different predominant wavelengths, each transducer being associated with a channel in an optoacoustic imaging system; processing at least two multi-channel sinograms, each corresponding to a different one of the at least two different predominant wavelengths to create at least two processed sinograms; extracting quadrature from each of the at least two processed sinograms thus providing real and imaginary

Assignees

• Seno Medical Instr Inc

Inventors

• Clingman Bryan
• Zalev Jason

Classifications

• G06T12/00

  Tomographic reconstruction from projections · CPC title

• A61B8/5207 Primary

  involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data, e.g. for generating an image · CPC title

• A61B5/4312

  Breast evaluation or disorder diagnosis (optical mammography A61B5/0091) · CPC title

• A61B5/0095

  by applying light and detecting acoustic waves, i.e. photoacoustic measurements · CPC title

• A61B5/7425

  Displaying combinations of multiple images regardless of image source, e.g. displaying a reference anatomical image with a live image · CPC title