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Photoacoustic breast tomography prototypes with reported human applications

  • Molecular Imaging
  • Published:
European Radiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

Photoacoustic breast tomography could provide optical molecular imaging with near-infrared light at sonographic image resolution by utilizing the photoacoustic effect. This review summarizes reports about current prototypes that were applied in vivo in humans.

Methods

Four databases were searched for reports about prototypes of photoacoustic breast tomography that were tested in vivo in humans. Data extracted from the reports comprised details about system design, phantom studies, and clinical studies.

Results

Five prototypes were included. System designs comprised planar, hemicylindrical and hemispherical geometries. In total, 52 of 61 breast cancers (85 %) were detected by three of the prototypes, showing image details such as ring-pattern of the haemoglobin-rich tumour vasculature. A refined prototype provided submillimetre resolution at a good contrast-to-noise ratio up to a depth of about 5 cm in a cup-shaped breast configuration. Another novel prototype demonstrated that in the mammographic imaging geometry, the total imaging depth approximately duplicates with bilateral laser illumination. Most prototypes focused on detecting elevated haemoglobin content related to tumours, but proof-of-principle was also given for multispectral optoacoustic tomography by additional imaging of tissue oxygenation.

Conclusions

Photoacoustic breast tomography can detect breast cancer. This radiation-free molecular imaging technology should be further refined and studied for clinical applications.

Key Points

• Photoacoustics combines optical imaging with sonographic signal detection.

• Photoacoustic tomography could provide molecular imaging at high image resolution.

• Prototypes have been designed for human breast cancer imaging.

• Preliminary evaluation studies show that photoacoustic tomography detects breast cancer.

• This radiation-free method should be further improved and studied for clinical applications.

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Abbreviations

DOT:

Diffuse optical tomography

MSOT:

Multispectral optoacoustic tomography

NIR:

Near-infrared

PAT:

Photoacoustic tomography

PAM:

Photoacoustic mammography

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Acknowledgments

The scientific guarantor of this publication is Jan Menke. The author of this manuscript declares no relationships with any companies, whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article. The author states that this work has not received any funding. No complex statistical methods were necessary for this paper. Institutional Review Board approval was not required because this is a review. Written informed consent was not required for this study because this is a review. Some study subjects or cohorts have been previously reported in the cited papers. Methodology: systematic review.

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  1. Radiology Center, University Medical Center, Robert-Koch-Strasse 40, 37075, Goettingen, Germany

    Jan Menke

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Correspondence to Jan Menke.

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Menke, J. Photoacoustic breast tomography prototypes with reported human applications. Eur Radiol 25, 2205–2213 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-015-3647-x

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