Development of a fast-scanning combined ultrasound-photoacoustic biomicroscope

Recently a realtime photoacoustic microscopy system has been demonstrated. Unfortunately, however, displayed B-scan images were sometimes difficult to interpret as there was little structural context. In this work, we provide structural context for photoacoustic microscopy images by adding ultrasound biomicroscopy as a complementary and synergistic modality. Our system uses a voice-coil translation stage capable of 1" lateral translation, and can operate in excess of 15 Hz for 1-cm translations, providing up to 30 ultrasound frames per second. The frame-rate of the photoacoustic acquisitions is limited by the 20-Hz pulse-repetition rate of the laser, but can be increased with a faster-repetition-rate laser. Data from the system is streamed in real time from a 2GS/s PCI data acquisition card to the host PC at rates as high as 200 MB/s. The system should prove useful for various in vivo studies, including combined ultrasound Doppler and photoacoustic imaging.

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