Fast full-view photoacoustic imaging by combined scanning with a linear transducer array

We present a fast full-view photoacoustic imaging system for visualizing tissue structures using a linear transducer array with combined scan. In this system, a 128-element linear transducer array was used to detect photoacoustic signals by combined scanning of electronic scan and mechanical scan. An improved limited-field filtered back projection algorithm with directivity factors was applied to reconstruct the optical absorption distribution. The experiments on phantoms and in vivo blood vessels in a rat brain were performed with this system. And a clear view of the curve boundaries of objects and the network of blood vessels of rat's brain were acquired. The experimental results demonstrate the multielement photoacoustic imaging system has the ability of imaging complicated structures of objects. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.