Patent ID: 6292682
Filing Date: 2001-09-18
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A method of imaging tissue structures in a three-dimensional volume of tissue by detecting localized absorption of electromagnetic waves in said tissue, comprising providing a source of electromagnetic radiation in proximity to said tissue;providing a plurality of acoustic sensors;acoustically coupling said plurality of acoustic sensors to said tissue via a coupling media chosen from one or more of: water, salinated water, alcohol, oil and mineral oil;irradiating said three-dimensional volume of tissue with a pulse of diffuse electromagnetic radiation from said source to generate resultant pressure waveforns within said three-dimensional volume of tissue;detecting said resultant pressure waveforms arriving at said acoustic sensors and storing data representative of said waveforms;combining a plurality of said detected pressure waveforms to derive a measure of pressure waveforms originating at a point distant from said acoustic sensors; andrepeating said combining step for a plurality of points to produce an image of structures in said tissue.