Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) with a handheld linear ultrasound (US) probe is widely used owing to its convenient and inherent dual modality capability. However, the limited length of the linear probe makes PAI suffer from the limited view. In this study, we present a simple method to substantially increase the view angle aided by two US reflectors. Both phantom and invivo animal study results have demonstrated that the imaging quality can be greatly improved with the reflector without sacrificing the imaging speed.

Photoacoustic (PA) tomography (PAT) breaks the barrier for high-resolution optical imaging in a strong light-scattering medium, having a great potential for both clinical implementation and small animal studies. However, many organs and tissues lack enough PA contrast or even hinder the propagation of PA waves. Therefore, it is challenging to interpret pure PAT images, especially three-dimensional (3D) PA images for deep tissues, without enough structural information. To overcome this limitation, in this study, we integrated PAT with X-ray computed tomography (CT) in a standalone system. PAT provides optical contrast and CT gives anatomical information. We performed agar, tissue phantom, and animal studies, and the results demonstrated that PAT/CT imaging systems can provide accurate spatial registration of important complementary contrasts.