In medical imaging, X-ray-based methods are widely used, which means that patients are exposed to ionizing radiation. In addition, invasive tissue samples often need to be taken with biopsy needles to, for example, safely determine or rule out a cancer diagnosis. With this project, the investigators evaluate a light-based (optical) method combined with ultrasound that is completely harmless to humans, ultrasound-optical-tomography (UOT). UOT is predicted to be able to penetrate deeper into the body to measure functions and image tissues than was previously possible with other optical imaging methods.
The aim of this project is to explore the capabilities and safety of UOT regarding imaging depth and tissue property information in healthy participants, as a first step to understand the technology's capabilities and limitations.
The long-term goal, in future steps, is to develop the technology for clinical assessment of cancer-suspected lesions with a particular focus on breast cancer and for assessment of circulatory disorders in tissue.