Photoacoustic active ultrasound element for catheter tracking

In recent years, various methods have been developed to improve ultrasound based interventional tool tracking. However, none of them has yet provided a solution that effectively solves the tool visualization and mid-plane localization accuracy problem and fully meets the clinical requirements. Our previous work has demonstrated a new active ultrasound pattern injection system (AUSPIS), which integrates active ultrasound transducers with the interventional tool, actively monitors the beacon signals and transmits ultrasound pulses back to the US probe with the correct timing. Ex vivo and in vivo experiments have proved that AUSPIS greatly improved tool visualization, and provided tool-tip localization accuracy of less than 300 μm. In the previous work, the active elements were made of piezoelectric materials. However, in some applications the high driving voltage of the piezoelectric element raises safety concerns. In addition, the metallic electrical wires connecting the piezoelectric element may also cause artifacts in CT and MR imaging. This work explicitly focuses on an all-optical active ultrasound element approach to overcome these problems. In this approach, the active ultrasound element is composed of two optical fibers - one for transmission and one for reception. The transmission fiber delivers a laser beam from a pulsed laser diode and excites a photoacoustic target to generate ultrasound pulses. The reception fiber is a Fabry-Pérot hydrophone. We have made a prototype catheter and performed phantom experiments. Catheter tip localization, mid-plan detection and arbitrary pattern injection functions have been demonstrated using the all-optical AUSPIS.