Fully integrated acousto optical electronic photonic system for real time in vivo 3D photoacoustic imaging by northeastern university and subawardees university of washington johns hopkins…

Fully integrated acousto optical electronic photonic system for real time in vivo 3D photoacoustic imaging by northeastern university and subawardees university of washington johns hopkins university and massachusetts general hospital.endoscopic and intravascular photoacoustic imaging systems that navigate the body to diagnose and evaluate disease are a key element of the future of medicine addressing malfunction in cancer cardiovascular and other disease areas. At present however wide deployment of these systems have been limited by low imaging speed and large size frequently causing post operative complications. Emerging systems on the other hand suffer from poor image quality due to their inherent limitations of low signal to noise ratio and spatial resolution. To address these core limitations we need to break away from the conventional scheme of recording and relaying photoacoustic signals using electrical ultrasound transducers and cables. We propose a disruptive approach based on advancements in microelectronics nanofabrication and options to develop an innovative electronic photonic photoacoustic imaging system based on acousto optic detection. The system core element is a miniature probe in which photoacoustic waves from the tissue of interest are detected and transduced to optical signals. The resulting optical signals are routed using a dense optical fiber bundle to a module outside the body. The module embodies application specific electronic photonic integrated circuits and computational algorithms for data decoding and processing. Our unique design approach will result in an almost order of magnitude reduction in probe area with a simultaneous order of magnitude improvement in spatial resolution at clinically relevant depths over the state of the art. The result of our effort will be a radically new miniature optical photoacoustic imaging platform with advance image reconstruction algorithms. Such a system can transform the landscape of the photoacoustic imaging field by providing real time high contrast volumetric images that can assist the diagnosis and treatment of widespread diseases ranging from cancer to vascular diseases. The commercialization of our technology will have broad societal impacts since IT can provide opportunities with low invasiveness to personalize therapies and improve outcomes for patients.