title: Clutter elimination for deep clinical optoacoustic imaging using localised vibration tagging (LOVIT).
abstract: This paper investigates a novel method which allows clutter elimination in deep optoacoustic imaging. Clutter significantly limits imaging depth in clinical optoacoustic imaging, when irradiation optics and ultrasound detector are integrated in a handheld probe for flexible imaging of the human body. Strong optoacoustic transients generated at the irradiation site obscure weak signals from deep inside the tissue, either directly by propagating towards the probe, or via acoustic scattering. In this study we demonstrate that signals of interest can be distinguished from clutter by tagging them at the place of origin with localised tissue vibration induced by the acoustic radiation force in a focused ultrasonic beam. We show phantom results where this technique allowed almost full clutter elimination and thus strongly improved contrast for deep imaging. Localised vibration tagging by means of acoustic radiation force is especially promising for integration into ultrasound systems that already have implemented radiation force elastography.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland ; Joint Department of Physics, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Downs Road, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT, UK ; CRUK-EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Downs Road, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT, UK.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jaeger
authors.affiliation: Joint Department of Physics, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Downs Road, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT, UK ; CRUK-EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Downs Road, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT, UK.
authors.forename: Jeffrey C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Bamber
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frenz
keywords: ARF, acoustic radiation force; Contrast; Elastography; Epiphotoacoustic; FOV, field of view; Imaging depth; LOVIT, localised vibration tagging; OA, optoacoustic, optoacoustics; PSF, point spread function; Photoacoustic; Radiation force; Ultrasound; epi-OA, epi-optoacoustic, epiphotoacoustic