Photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) is an emerging soft-tissue imaging modality that has great potential for a wide range of preclinical and clinical imaging applications. It can be viewed as a hybrid imaging modality in the sense that it utilizes an optical contrast mechanism combined with ultrasonic detection principles, thereby combining the advantages of optical and ultrasonic imaging while circumventing their primary limitations. In this talk, we review our recent advancements in image reconstruction approaches for PACT in acoustically heterogeneous media. Such advancements include physics-based models of the measurement process for both fluid and elastic media and associated optimization-based inversion methods. Applications of PACT to transcranial brain imaging will be presented. Open challenges related to the joint reconstruction of optical and acoustic parameters in PACT will also be presented.
Professor Anastasio is an internationally recognized expert on tomographic image reconstruction, imaging physics, and the development of novel computed biomedical imaging systems. He has conducted pioneering research in the fields of photoacoustic computed tomography, diffraction tomography and X-ray phase-contrast imaging. He received an NSF CAREER award in 2006 for research related to image reconstruction topics. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biomedical Optics and Medical Physics, and is on the organizing committee for the SPIE Photonics West Photon Plus Ultrasound Conference and serves on the OSA FiO program committee. He was also a program chair for the 2009 Optical Society of America Signal Recovery and Synthesis Topical Meeting.