Инженеры из MIT получили первые изображения тканей человека с помощью метода лазерной ультразвуковой визуализации. Это новая технология, которая не требуете прямого контакта с кожей или телом пациента, говорится в описании разработки, опубликованном в журнале Nature.

Аудиофилы на месте?

A technology that delivers ultrasound images of living tissue without directly touching the target has undergone successful human testing for the first time. The need to contact a patient’s skin with conventional sound-sensitive piezoelectric devices can cause errors in ultrasound imaging when operators apply different amounts of pressure. Xiang Zhang and Brian Anthony from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, United States, and colleagues have designed a system that overcomes these limitations by using lasers to create and listen to ultrasound. The new method uses pulsed light to excite a thin upper portion of skin, producing acoustic waves that penetrates deeply into tissue. The ultrasound that scatters back to the surface is then detected with a laser interferometer. Noncontact imaging of 3D objects, animal tissue, and human volunteers detected features comparable to conventional ultrasound.