Image Infusion of Photoacoustic Imaging Based on Novel Adjustable Hand-held Probe

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is developing rapidly as a new kind of imaging technology. Conventional photoacoustic imaging devices are expensive, cumbersome, and illumination schemes are not adjustable, which significantly limit their development in clinical application. We designed an automated hand-held PA probe with adjustable illumination angle, spot size and distance. We also developed an adaptive control system for controlling the probe to achieve optimum illumination. Simulated scanning process on human brain model is performed to obtain photoacoustic images at various locations. Through image fusion algorithm, the images of each position are spliced and fused. Finally, the infused PA image of the human brain is obtained with higher contrast and fidelity.