Affiliations: Optical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical
Engineering, Texas A&M University, 3120 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-3120,
USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Optical Imaging Laboratory, Department of
Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 3120 TAMU, College Station, TX
77843-3120, USA. Tel.: +1 979 847 9040; Fax: +1 979 845 4450; E-mail:
[email protected]; Web Site: http://oilab.tamu.edu
Abstract: This article reviews two types of ultrasound-mediated biophotonic
imaging–acousto-optical tomography (AOT, also called ultrasound-modulated
optical tomography) and photo-acoustic tomography (PAT, also called
opto-acoustic or thermo-acoustic tomography)–both of which are based on
non-ionizing optical and ultrasonic waves. The goal of these technologies is to
combine the contrast advantage of the optical properties and the resolution
advantage of ultrasound. In these two technologies, the imaging contrast is
based primarily on the optical properties of biological tissues, and the
imaging resolution is based primarily on the ultrasonic waves that either are
provided externally or produced internally, within the biological tissues. In
fact, ultrasonic mediation overcomes both the resolution disadvantage of pure
optical imaging in thick tissues and the contrast and speckle disadvantages of
pure ultrasonic imaging. In our discussion of AOT, the relationship between
modulation depth and acoustic amplitude is clarified. Potential clinical
applications of ultrasound-mediated biophotonic imaging include early cancer
detection, functional imaging, and molecular imaging.
Journal: Disease Markers, vol. 19, no. 2-3, pp. 123-138, 2004
