Subhajit Karmakar

Computational Investigation on the Photoacoustics of Malaria Infected Red Blood Cells

A computer simulation study on the possibility of using photoacoustic (PA) technique to differentiate intraerythrocytic stages of malarial parasite is reported. This parasite during its development substantially converts hemoglobin into hemozoin. This conversion is expected to alter the cellular absorption leading to changes in the PA emission of a red blood cell (RBC) at certain incident optical wavelengths. The PA signals from blood samples corresponding to ring, trophozoite and schizont stages were computed and compared with that of normal blood. A Monte Carlo algorithm was implemented generating random locations of RBCs in 3D to simulate blood samples. The average PA amplitude for wide bandwidth signals decreases for 434 nm incident radiation, but increases for 700 nm as the parasite matures. The spectral power at 7.5 MHz for the blood sample at the schizont stage compared to the normal blood is nearly reduced by 6 dB and enhanced by 22 dB at those incident wavelengths, respectively. Bandlimited signals for transducers of 15 and 50 MHz center frequencies were studied and found to exhibit similar characteristics. The presence of hemozoin inside the cells was examined and an excellent estimation was made. The simulation results suggest that intraerythrocytic stages of malarial parasite may be assessed using the PA technique.

Validity of a theoretical model to examine blood oxygenation dependent optoacoustics

A theoretical model investigating the dependence of optoacoustic (OA) signal on blood oxygen saturation (SO(2)) is discussed. The derivations for the nonbandlimited and bandlimited OA signals from many red blood cells (RBCs) are presented. The OA field generated by many RBCs was obtained by summing the OA field emitted by each RBC approximated as a fluid sphere. A Monte Carlo technique was employed generating the spatial organizations of RBCs in two-dimensional. The RBCs were assumed to have the same SO(2) level in a simulated configuration. The fractional number of oxyhemoglobin molecules, confined in a cell, determined the cellular SO(2) and also defined the blood SO(2). For the nonbandlimited case, the OA signal amplitude decreased and increased linearly with blood SO(2) when illuminated by 700 and 1000 nm radiations, respectively. The power spectra exhibited similar trends over the entire frequency range (MHz to GHz). For the bandlimited case, three acoustic receivers with 2, 10, and 50 MHz as the center frequencies were considered. The linear variations of the OA amplitude with blood SO(2) were also observed for each receiver at those laser sources. The good agreement between simulated and published experimental results validates the model qualitatively.

Photoacoustic imaging of nanoparticle- containing cells using single-element focused transducer: a simulation study

A new theoretical approach for photoacoustic (PA) image simulation of an ensemble of cells with endocytosed gold nanoparticles is presented. Each cell was approximated as a fluid sphere and suspended in a nonabsorbing fluid medium. It was assumed that the cellular optical absorption coefficient changed greatly because of endocytosis of nanoparticles; however, thermophysical parameters remained unchanged because nanoparticles occupied negligible intracellular volume. A frequency-domain method was used to obtain a PA signal from a single cell and resultant signal detected by a focused single-element transducer was evaluated by convolving signals from many cells with the spatial impulse response function of the receiver. The proposed model was explored to simulate PA images of numerical phantoms. It was observed that features of the phantoms are retained precisely in those simulated images. Also, speckles in PA images are significantly suppressed because of strong boundary buildup when cells are bounded to a region. Nevertheless, speckle visibility increases when cells are not bounded to a region. This approach may be developed as a realistic simulation tool for PA imaging of tissue medium utilizing its cellular feature.

A new design of low pass filter by Gaussian derivative family

Exploiting the models of human visual system based on Gaussian derivatives and their non-localization property in spectral domain, a new design of low pass filter is proposed in this work. The filter is designed by a weighted combination of the Gaussian derivative family which makes the passband of this filter almost equiripple. This design principle can be extended for the bandpass filter also because of the bandpass nature of the Gaussian derivatives in spectral domain. This work is applied in the design of adaptive digital filters for sigma-delta based ultrasound beamformer

Photoacoustic response of suspended and hemolyzed red blood cells

The effect of confinement of hemoglobin molecules on photoacoustic (PA) signal is studied experimentally. The PA amplitudes for samples with suspended red blood cells (SRBCs) and hemolyzed red blood cells (HRBCs) were found to be comparable at each hematocrit for 532 nm illumination. The difference between the corresponding amplitudes increased with increasing hematocrit for 1064 nm irradiation. For example, the PA amplitude for the SRBCs was about 260% higher than that of the HRBCs at 40% hematocrit. This observation may help to develop a PA method detecting hemolysis noninvasively.

An Alternative Gaussian Window Approach for FIR Filter Design

The problem of conventional window based FIR filter design lies in its very limited design flexibility and more specifically the lack of control over band edges. We propose an alternative Gaussian window approach for FIR filter design that overcomes these problems of conventional window method. We show that sum of mean shifted Gaussians can be used for flexible filter design. We also derive relations to compute the corresponding impulse response effectively in a non-recursive manner. These relations give precise control over band-edge frequencies. Comparison of precision in control and computational time with other methods is also presented.

Photoacoustic speckle: Theoretical basis and experimental evidence

Imaging speckle arises from the interference of waves from randomly distributed sources. Here, we provide a theoretical basis and experimental evidence for the presence of speckle in photoacoustic (PA) imaging across multiple ultrasonic (US) detection frequencies.

Rapid computation of photoacoustic fields from normal and pathological red blood cells using a Green's function method

Photoacoustic (PA) field calculations using a Green’s function approach is presented. The method has been applied to predict PA spectra generated by normal (discocyte) and pathological (stomatocyte) red blood cells (RBCs). The contours of normal and pathological RBCs were generated by employing a popular parametric model and accordingly, fitted with the Legendre polynomial expansions for surface parametrization. The first frequency minimum of theoretical PA spectrum approximately appears at 607 MHz for a discocyte and 410 MHz for a stomatocyte when computed from the direction of symmetry axis. The same feature occurs nearly at 247 and 331 MHz, respectively, for those particles when measured along the perpendicular direction. The average experimental spectrum for normal RBCs is found to be flat over a bandwidth of 150-500 MHz when measured along the direction of symmetry axis. For spherical RBCs, both the theoretical and experimental spectra demonstrate negative slope over a bandwidth of 250-500 MHz. Using the Green’s function method discussed, it may be possible to rapidly characterize cellular morphology from single-particle PA spectra.

Realistic photoacoustic image simulations of collections of solid spheres using linear array transducer

A methodology for simulating photoacoustic (PA) images of samples with solid spherical absorbers acquired using linear array transducer is described. Two types of numerical phantoms (i.e., polystyrene beads suspended in agar medium) of two different size regimes were imaged with a 40 MHz linear array transducer utilizing this approach. The frequency domain features and statistics of the simulated signals were quantified for tissue characterization. The midband fit at 40 MHz was found to be about 35 dB higher for the sample with larger beads (radius ~7.36 μm) than that of the sample with smaller particles (radius ~ 1.77 μm). The scale parameter of the generalized gamma distribution function was found to be nearly 51 times greater for the former sample compared to the latter sample. The method developed here shows potential to be used a s a fast simulation tool for the PA imaging of collection of absorbers mimicking biological tissue.

Probing confined and unconfined hemoglobin molecules with photoacoustics

Photoacoustic (PA) measurements on confined and unconfined hemoglobin molecules are presented. In vitro experiments were performed with porcine red blood cells (RBCs) at 532 and 1064 nm at various laser fluences. Fluence was gradually changed from 8 to 21 mJ/cm2/pulse for 532 nm and 353 to 643 mJ/cm2/pulse for 1064 nm. PA signals from suspended RBCs (SRBCs) and hemolyzed RBCs (HRBCs) were measured using a needle hydrophone at hematocrits ranging from 10 to 60%. PA amplitude was found to be varied linearly with the laser fluence for each type of samples at the above two optical radiations. At 532 nm, PA signals from SRBCs and HRBCs were measured to be nearly equal, whereas, at 1064 nm, signal amplitude for SRBCs was approximately 2 times higher than that of HRBCs. The results suggest that it may be feasible to detect hemolysis with PAs.