Three-dimensional multispectral hand-held optoacoustic imaging with microsecond-level delayed laser pulses

Three-dimensional hand-held optoacoustic imaging comes with important advantages that prompt the clinical translation of this modality, with applications envisioned in cardiovascular and peripheral vascular disease, disorders of the lymphatic system, breast cancer, arthritis or inflammation. Of particular importance is the multispectral acquisition of data by exciting the tissue at several wavelengths, which enables functional imaging applications. However, multispectral imaging of entire three-dimensional regions is significantly challenged by motion artefacts in concurrent acquisitions at different wavelengths. A method based on acquisition of volumetric datasets having a microsecond-level delay between pulses at different wavelengths is described in this work. This method can avoid image artefacts imposed by a scanning velocity greater than 2 m/s, thus, does not only facilitate imaging influenced by respiratory, cardiac or other intrinsic fast movements in living tissues, but can achieve artifact-free imaging in the presence of more significant motion, e.g. abrupt displacements during handheld-mode operation in a clinical environment.