Near Infrared Diffused Light Imaging with Ultrasound

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的目的是提高乳腺诊断成像的检测灵敏度和特异性。这将通过开发一种新的混合成像方法来实现，该方法将基于扩散波的近红外（NIR）光学技术与超声波相结合。近红外成像在乳腺肿瘤检测中具有很高的灵敏度/特异性，然而，由于近红外光在人体组织中的弥漫性，它在空间分辨率上受到本质上的限制。此外，近红外成像重建通常是欠确定和不确定的。另一方面，超声具有良好的成像能力，可以分辨乳腺组织中几个毫米的病变。但由于正常组织、良恶性病变的声学特征重叠，超声检测乳腺癌的敏感性和特异性不高。我们的混合成像系统旨在将近红外成像的高对比度与超声成像固有的高空间分辨率相结合，以区分正常，良性和恶性组织。具体来说，光学图像重建算法将通过使用联合配准超声图像提供的病变几何辅助知识进行优化。将对一组经体格检查和影像学检查确定为良性和恶性病变的患者进行检查，由此获得的数据将用于评估混合近红外/超声方法，并将其与常规超声诊断进行比较。与单独超声相比，联合方法的检测灵敏度和特异性将以活检结果作为“金”标准进行评估。本研究计划的完成将有助于验证一种检测和诊断乳腺病变的新方法，为乳腺癌的早期发现和适当治疗提供新的机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this research is to improve detection sensitivity and specificity in diagnostic imaging of the breast. This will be accomplished by exploiting a novel hybrid imaging method, which combines near infrared (NIR) optical techniques based on diffusive waves with ultrasound. NIR imaging affords high sensitivity/specificity in the detection of breast tumors, However, it is intrinsically limited in spatial resolution because of the diffuse nature of NIR light in human tissue. In addition, NIR imaging reconstruction is in general underdetermined and ill posed. On the other hand, ultrasound has good imaging capability and can resolve a few mm lesions in breast tissues. However, ultrasound sensitivity and specificity for breast cancer detection are not high due to the overlap in acoustic features of normal tissue, benign and malignant lesions. Our hybrid imaging system is designed to combine the high contrasts of NIR imaging in distinguishing among normal, benign and malignant tissues with the high spatial resolution inherent in ultrasound imaging. Specifically, optical image reconstruction algorithms will be optimized by using ancillary knowledge about lesion geometry provided by co-registered ultrasound images. A cohort of patients with benign and malignant lesions, as determined by physical exam and radiologic study, will be examined, and the data thus obtained will be used to assess the hybrid NIR/ultrasound method and to compare it with conventional ultrasound diagnosis. The detection sensitivity and specificity of the combined method compared to ultrasound alone will be estimated using biopsy results as "gold' standard. Completion of this research plan will serve to validate a novel method for detection and diagnosis of breast lesions, resulting in new opportunities for early detection and appropriate treatment of breast carcinoma.