Patent ID: 6567688
Filing Date: 2003-05-20
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A method of electromagnetically-induced thermoacoustic imaging of biological tissue, comprising:(a) repetitively irradiating the tissue to be imaged with short pulses of electromagnetic energy to induce thermoacoustic waves within the tissue, including the step of compressing the electromagnetic energy to a narrow wave in the region of irradiation of the tissue wherein the frequency of the electromagnetic energy is within the range of from 300 MHz to 3 GHz and the duration of the electromagnetic pulses is within the range of from 0.1 &mgr;s to 0.5 &mgr;s; (b) detecting the thermoacoustic waves with at least one focused ultrasonic transducer and generating time-domain signals in response thereto; and (c) converting the time-domain signals to a one-dimensional image of the tissue along the acoustic axis of the transducer.