In order to start developing multimodal co-registration techniques, optoacoustic and MRI data were acquired for the same object.

At iThera in Munich, Germany on the 14th of February 2019, Dr Thomas Sardella, Senior Application Specialist at iThera Scientific (ItS) met with Drs Vipul Gujrati and Jaber Malekzadeh from the Technical University of Munich, (TUM).  The purpose was to image Thomas’ hand using an Acuity imaging system and an MSOT inVision 256-TF small animal imaging system. They used multiple hand and transducer orientations. Both optoacoustic imaging systems (Acuity and inVision) have a concave transducer array which acquires optoacoustic signals and naturally co-registers reflective ultrasound computed tomography (RUCT) signals displaying live 2D reconstructed OA and RUCT images in real time.

Subsequently, in Cambridge, the UK on the 21st February 2019, the hand from the same volunteer was imaged by Dr Josh Kaggie, University of Cambridge (CAM) at Addenbrooke Hospital using a GE 3 Tesla clinical MRI.

OA/RUCT data, as well as MRI data, will be stored at TUM and used to start defining the requirements for multimodality co-registration.

  

Above: Jaber Malekzadeh, TUM (left) and Thomas Sardella, iTS (right) at iThera Medical, Munich

Above: Josh Kaggie, CAM (left) and Thomas Sardella, iTS (right) in Addenbrooke Hospital, Cambridge