Image Enhancement Algorithm of Photoacoustic Tomography Using Active Contour Filtering

Authors: Prasannakumar Palaniappan, Dong Ho Shin, Chul Gyu Song

Abstract:

The photoacoustic images are obtained from a custom developed linear array photoacoustic tomography system. The biological specimens are imitated by conducting phantom tests in order to retrieve a fully functional photoacoustic image. The acquired image undergoes the active region based contour filtering to remove the noise and accurately segment the object area for further processing. The universal back projection method is used as the image reconstruction algorithm. The active contour filtering is analyzed by evaluating the signal to noise ratio and comparing it with the other filtering methods.

Keywords: Contour filtering, linear array, photoacoustic tomography, universal back projection.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1123741

References:

[1] Oraevsky A A, Esenaliev R O, Jacques S L, Tittel S K, “Laser opto-acoustic tomography for medical diagnostics: principles,” Proc. SPIE 2976 22.31, 1996.
[2] Wang X, Pang Y, Ku G, Xie X, Stoica G, Wang L V, “Non-invasive laser-induced photoacoustic tomography for structural and functional imaging of the brain in vivo,” Nat. Biotechnol. 21 803.6, 2003.
[3] Kruger R A, Liu P-Y, Fang Y, “Thermoacoustic ultrasound (PAUS)-reconstruction tomography,” Med. Phys.22 1605.9, 1995.
[4] Lihong V. Wang, “Ed. Photoacoustic Imaging and Spectroscopy,” 1st ed., Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2009.
[5] Zhang H F, Maslov K, Stoica G, Wang L-H, “Functional photoacoustic microscopy for high-resolution and noninvasive in vivo imaging,” Nat. Biotechnol. 24 848.51, 2006.
[6] A. Oraevsky and A. Karabutov, “Optoacoustic tomography, in Biomedical Photonics Handbook,” T. Vo-Dinh, CRC, Boca Raton, Ed., Chap. 34, pp. 1-34, 2003.
[7] L. V. Wang and H. Wu, “Ed. Biomedical Optics: Principles and Imaging,” John Wiley, 2007
[8] J. T. Oh, M. L. Li, H. F. Zhang, K. Maslov, G. Stoica, and L. V. Wang, “Three-dimensional imaging of skin melanoma in vivo by dual-wavelength photoacoustic microscopy,” J. Biomed. Opt., Vol. 11, No. 3, p. 034032, Nov. 2006.
[9] M Xu, L. V. Wang, “Universal back-projection algorithm for photoacoustic-computed tomography,” doi:10.1117/12.589146, 2005.
[10] Kass, Michael, Andrew Witkin, and Demetri Terzopoulos. "Snakes: Active contour models." International journal of computer vision 1.4 (1988): 321-331.
[11] Chan, Tony F., B. Yezrielev Sandberg, and Luminita A. Vese. "Active contours without edges for vector-valued images." Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation 11.2 (2000): 130-141.
[12] N. Otsu, A threshold selection method from gray-level histograms, IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern, SMC-0 (1), 62 (1979).
[13] Roger J. Zemp, Liang Song, Rachel Bitton, K. Kirk Shung, and Lihong V. Wang, “Realtime photoacoustic microscopy in vivo with a 30-MHz ultrasound array transducer,” doi: 10.1364/OE.16.007915, OSA: 2008
[14] Lihong V. Wang, “Prospects of photoacoustic tomography,” The International Journal of Medical Physics Research and Practice, doi: 10.1118/1.3013698, 2008.
[15] R. J. Zemp, R. Bitton, M. L. Li, K. K. Shung, G. Stoica, and L. V. Wang, “Photoacoustic imaging of the microvasculature with a high-frequency ultrasound array transducer,” J. Biomed. Opt., Vol. 12 No. 1, p. 010501, Jan./Feb. 2007.
[16] Zhou Q, Ji X, Xing D., “Full-field 3D photoacoustic imaging based on plane transducer array and spatial phase-controlled algorithm,” Med. Phys., Vol. 38, No. 3, Mar. 2011.
[17] Li Lin; Jun Xia; Terence T. W. Wong; Lei Li and Lihong V. Wang "In vivo deep brain imaging of rats using oral-cavity illuminated photoacoustic computed tomography", J. Biomed. Opt. 20(1), 016019; Jan 22, 2015.
[18] T. F. Chan, L. A. Vese, Active contours without edges. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Volume 10, Issue 2, pp. 266-277, 2001.