Program Information
Development of a Minimally Invasive Photo Acoustic Imaging System for Early Prostate Cancer Detection
M Sano*, S Yousefi , L Xing , Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
Presentations
WE-EF-210-7 (Wednesday, July 15, 2015) 1:45 PM - 3:45 PM Room: 210
Purpose: The objective of this work is to design, implement and characterize a catheter-based ultrasound/photoacoustic imaging probe for early-diagnosis of prostate cancer and to aid in image-guided radiation therapy.
Methods: The need to image across 6-10cm of tissue to image the whole prostate gland limits the resolution achievable with a transrectal ultrasound approach. In contrast, the urethra bisects the prostate gland, providing a minimally invasive pathway for deploying a high resolution ultrasound transducer. Utilizing a high-frequency (20MHz) ultrasound/photoacoustic probe, high-resolution structural and molecular imaging of the prostate tissue is possible. A custom 3D printed probe containing a high-frequency single-element ultrasound transducer is utilized. The diameter of the probe is designed to fit inside a Foley catheter and the probe is rotated around the central axis to achieve a circular B-scan. A custom ultrasound amplifier and receiver was set up to trigger the ultrasound pulse transmission and record the reflected signal. The reconstructed images were compared to images generated by traditional 5 MHz ultrasound transducers.
Results: The preliminary results using the high-frequency ultrasound probe show that it is possible to resolve finely detailed information in a prostate tissue phantom that was not achievable with previous low-frequency ultrasound systems. Preliminary ultrasound imaging was performed on tissue mimicking phantom and sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio of the catheter was measured.
Conclusion: In order to achieve non-invasive, high-resolution, structural and molecular imaging for early-diagnosis and image-guided radiation therapy of the prostate tissue, a transurethral catheter was designed. Structural/molecular imaging using ultrasound/photoacoustic of the prostate tissue will allow for localization of hyper vascularized areas for early-stage prostate cancer diagnosis.
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