Fast Acousto-Optic Tomography System

描述（由申请人提供）：为了提高早期乳腺癌检测的概率，同时减少不必要的针活检的数量，物理光学公司提出开发一种新的快速声光断层扫描系统（FAOTS），作为常规超声乳房检查的辅助工具，通常是在筛查乳房x光检查之后。创新的FAOTS将提供比超声成像更好的图像对比度，因为正常组织和肿瘤组织的光学特性比它们的声学特性差异大得多。FAOTS将使用紧密聚焦的超声光束来移动组织中特定位置的光子频率，并使用外差技术利用快速CMOS芯片上多个光电探测器的并行信号采集来检测它们。利用具有大存储容量的高速（>4000 fps） CMOS相机，可以在短时间间隔内检测信号，因此活体组织中的散斑去相关不会影响系统运行。在第一阶段，POC实验证明了实验室原型能够以超过散斑去相关时间的速度获得高对比度信号。在第二阶段，POC将设计和制造一个FAOTS工程原型，并在加州托伦斯港-加州大学洛杉矶分校医学中心演示其绘制患者乳腺组织光学特性的能力。完全开发的FAOTS将提供~0.4 mm的空间分辨率，明显优于光学漫射层析成像（ODT）。FAOTS技术将使乳腺癌诊断的阳性预测值（PPV）得到改善，更早地发现较小的肿瘤，从而提高患者在癌症治疗后长期生存的机会。FAOTS技术用于绘制乳腺组织光学特性的成功演示，将拓宽FAOTS技术使用多波长光来提高图像对比度的扩展视角。它还将促进特殊仪器的发展，用于绘制其他内部器官的光学特性，以及更好地诊断这些器官（例如前列腺）的肿瘤。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): To improve the probability of earlier breast cancer detection while reducing the number of unnecessary needle biopsies, Physical Optics Corporation proposes to develop a new Fast Acousto-Optic Tomography System (FAOTS) as an auxiliary tool for the conventional ultrasound breast examination that often follows a screening mammography. The innovative FAOTS will provide images with better contrast than sonography, because the optical properties of normal tissue and tissue with neoplasia differ much more than their acoustic properties. FAOTS will use a tightly focused ultrasound beam to shift the frequency of photons at a certain location in a tissue and detect them using a heterodyne technique utilizing a parallel signal acquisition by multiple photodetectors on a fast CMOS chip. The utilization of a high-speed (>4000 fps) CMOS camera with a large memory capacity enables signal detection in a short time interval, so speckle decorrelation in the live tissue will not affect system operation. In Phase I, POC experimentally demonstrated the capability of the laboratory prototype of obtaining high contrast signals with a speed exceeding the speckle decorrelation time. In Phase II, POC will design and fabricate an engineering FAOTS prototype and conduct a demonstration of its capability of mapping the optical properties of patient breast tissue at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California. The fully developed FAOTS will provide a spatial resolution of ~0.4 mm, which is significantly better than Optical Diffuse Tomography (ODT). The FAOTS technology will enable positive predictive value (PPV) improvement in breast cancer diagnostics, with earlier detection of smaller tumors, thus enhancing patients' chances for long-time survival after cancer treatment. The successful demonstration of the FAOTS technology for mapping the optical properties of breast tissue will broaden the perspective for the extension of the FAOTS technology using multiple light wavelengths for improving image contrast. It will also facilitate development of special instrumentation for mapping the optical properties of other internal organs, and better diagnostics of tumors in these organs (e.g., prostate).