Accuracy of approximate inversion schemes in quantitative photoacoustic imaging

Abstract

Five numerical phantoms were developed to investigate the accuracy of approximate inversion schemes in the reconstruction of oxygen saturation in photoacoustic imaging. In particular, two types of inversion are considered: Type I, an inversion that assumes fluence is unchanged between illumination wavelengths, and Type II, a method that assumes known background absorption and scattering coefficients to partially correct for the fluence. These approaches are tested in tomography (PAT) and acoustic-resolution microscopy mode (AR-PAM). They are found to produce accurate values of oxygen saturation in a blood vessel of interest at shallow depth - less than 3mm for PAT and less than 1mm for AR-PAM.