Medical imaging plays a central role in modern healthcare, providing invaluable structural and functional information of the inside of the body. Ultrasonography (US) is broadly available due to its portability, safe use, real-time display, and low price. On the downside, the classical contrast mechanism—echo intensity—restricts its diagnostic value to limited scenarios. At the Optoacoustic and Ultrasound Imaging Team, we are advancing innovative US-based imaging modes aimed at combining the availability and flexibility of US imaging with complementary diagnostic power.
• In opto (or photo-) acoustic imaging (OA), short laser pulses—as opposed to sound—are sent into the tissue where they generate US signals upon optical absorption. Detection of these signals allows to create maps of the tissue’s optical contrast, with promise in, e.g., the diagnosis and monitoring of vascular diseases, arthritis, and cancer. Our team focuses on the combination of OA with classical US systems, where we are leading in the development of techniques that enable a clinically useful imaging depth.
• Conventional US maps the intensity of echoes, which represents the tissue’s microstructure and allows a diagnosis of disease that affects this structure. There is—however—much more information contained in US signals than just echo intensity. The tissue’s speed of sound (SoS) is a promising marker for disease that influences tissue composition. Our team has invented and develops computed Ultrasound Tomography in Echo mode (CUTE) which maps the SoS using conventional US equipment. Together with our collaborators and the Inselspital (Prof. Dr. med. Annalisa Berzigotti) we have already shown the value of this technique for liver diagnosis where it allows a quantification of liver fat concentration.
Our final goal is the combination of conventional ultrasound, OA, CUTE, and other novel modalities in a single device which will unify the virtues of real-time operability and patient safety with the diagnostic accuracy of multimodal imaging.
