Performance of iterative optoacoustic tomography with experimental data

In this letter we experimentally demonstrate the sensitivity and overall performance of iterative correction for light attenuation in optoacoustic tomography as a function of number of iterations and accuracy of the tissue optical properties estimations. Experimental optoacoustic data were obtained by circularly illuminating a tissue-mimicking phantom with a high intensity pulsed near infrared laser and measuring the subsequent acoustic waves using a broadband acoustic hydrophone. We showcase an improvement in image fidelity and quantification due to the iterative inversion but find the method sensitive to the background optical properties and of a diverging behavior when increasing the number of iterations. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3167280]