Technical Note: Thermoacoustic imaging of hemorrhagic stroke: A feasibility study with a human skull

Abstract

PURPOSE: To study the possibility of thermoacoustic imaging (TAI) toward hemorrhagic stroke detection. METHODS: A single-transducer circular-scanning TAI system was used for data collection. An agar powder-based, tissue-mimicking phantom enclosed by a human skull was applied to simulate the brain for thermoacoustic imaging of hemorrhagic stroke. RESULTS: Several phantom experiments mimicking hemorrhagic stroke detection were conducted, and the results showed that "hemorrhagic" targets as small as 0.9 mm in diameter could be detected. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that TAI has the potential to be used for noninvasive hemorrhagic stroke detection and identification of hemorrhagic from ischemic stroke.