First Practical Experiences with the Optoacoustic/Ultrasound System OPUS

摘要

The OPUS (OPtoacoustic UltraSound) system combines a conventional ultrasound (US) system with a specially designed OPO (Optical Parametrical Oscillator) laser system to generate and detect optoacoustical (OA) signals at multiple wavelengths. The intention of this combination was to demonstrate that a conventional ultrasound system can be transformed into an optoacoustic module without major modifications. To offer operational ease of use similar to those of the conventional US instrumentation, i.e. slow moving of the US transducer over the examined tissue area, a high repetition rate of the laser is required. A repetition rate of 100 Hz of the laser system enables a fast image frame rate. Different approaches for the presentation of the two types of images to the operator are compared. For an optimum applicability of the system we found it essential to provide both, the well-known US image and the OA image of the same tissue section to the user. The operator has now the possibility to overlay both images on one screen and thus to extract the desired information from each imaging mode.