An improved method for quantitative recovery of conductivity using tomographically measured thermoacoustic data

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Zheng, Zhu^{a; b} | Jiang, Yunchao^{a; b} | Huang, Lin^{a; b} | Zhao, Yuan^{a; b} | Jiang, Huabei^{a; b; c; *}

Affiliations: [a] School of Electronic Science and Engineering (National Exemplary School of Microelectronics), University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China | [b] Center for Information in Medicine, University of Electronic and Technology of China, Chengdu, China | [c] Department of Medical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Huabei Jiang, E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: Noninvasive extraction of tissue conductivity distribution is important in brain imaging and cancer detection. Here we present an improved method that can accurately image tissue conductivity using tomographically measured microwave-induced thermoacoustic data. Our reconstruction algorithm is first tested using simulations, and then validated using tissue phantom experiments where saline-containing tubes are used as target(s) with various target sizes, positions and conductivities. The average error of reconstruction for the simulations is reduced from 4.87% to 1.38% compared with the previous algorithm. The experimental results obtained suggest that accurate quantitative thermoacoustic imaging would provide a potential tool for precision medicine.

Keywords: Thermoacoustic imaging, conductivity distribution, quantitative thermoacoustic tomography method

DOI: 10.3233/XST-190577

Journal: Journal of X-Ray Science and Technology, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 137-145, 2020