Congratulations to Dr. Huabei Jiang, Pruitt Family Professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, and BME Ph.D. student, Lei Yao, on the patent issuance of their technology, “Enhanced Image Reconstruction in Photoacoustic Tomography.”

This patent describes an innovative method that can provide excellent image reconstructions from fewer detectors and limited-view data in photoacoustic tomography (PAT).

This new method will produce considerably improved image quality with minimal artifact and accurate image values compared to those produced by conventional PAT algorithms. It will also significantly reduce the number of ultrasound sensors and scanning time needed for data collection.

Biomedical PAT is an imaging method for visualizing the internal structure of soft tissues with excellent spatial resolution and satisfactory imaging depth. Conventional PAT can image tissues with high spatial resolution; however a large number of measurements are needed for reconstruction of an image. In addition, photoacoustic signals recorded over an aperture that does not enclose the object can result in a limited-view topographic reconstruction. In such cases, the existing reconstruction algorithms often give distorted images with severe artifacts.