System and method for quality-enhanced high-rate optoacoustic imaging of an object

摘要

The invention relates to a system (100) and method for optoacoustic imaging of an object (1) comprising an image acquisition unit (10) for acquiring a first sequence (201) of tomographic optoacoustic images of a region of interest of the object (1), wherein the image acquisition unit (10) comprises an illumination device (11) for irradiating the region of interest of the object (1) with electromagnetic radiation, in particular light, and a detection device (12) for repeatedly collecting acoustic waves emerging from the object upon irradiating the object (1) and for generating the first sequence (201) of tomographic optoacoustic images of the region of interest from the repeatedly collected acoustic waves. In order to allow for an acquisition of sequences of tomographic optoacoustic images of high image frame rate and high image quality, in particular video sequences of tomographic optoacoustic images exhibiting less motion and/or noise perturbations than conventional video sequences, a processing unit (20) is provided for generating a second sequence (202) of one or more tomographic optoacoustic images from the first sequence (201) of tomographic optoacoustic images based on an analysis of one or more tomographic optoacoustic images of the first sequence (201) of tomographic optoacoustic images and/or at least one property of the object (1) while acquiring the first sequence (201) of tomographic optoacoustic images and/or at least one property of the acquisition unit (10) while acquiring the first sequence (201) of tomographic optoacoustic images.