Photoacoustic imaging through skull bone causes strong attenuation and distortion of the acoustic wavefront, which diminishes image contrast and resolution. As a result, transcranial photoacoustic measurements in humans have been challenging to demonstrate. In this study, we investigated the acoustic transmission through the human skull to design an ultrasound sensor suitable for transcranial PA imaging and sensing. We measured the frequency dependent losses of human cranial bones , compared the performance of a range of piezoelectric and optical ultrasound sensors, and imaged skull phantoms using a PA tomograph based on a planar Fabry–Perot sensor. All transcranial photoacoustic measurements show the typical effects of frequency and thickness dependent attenuation and aberration associated with acoustic propagation through bone. The performance of plano-concave optical resonator ultrasound sensors was found to be highly suitable for transcranial photoacoustic measurements.

中文翻译：

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用于经颅光声传感和成像的超声传感器的评估

通过颅骨的光声成像会导致声波前的强烈衰减和畸变，从而降低图像对比度和分辨率。因此，人类的经颅光声测量一直难以证明。在这项研究中，我们研究了通过人类颅骨的声波传输，以设计适合经颅 PA 成像和传感的超声传感器。我们测量了人类颅骨的频率相关损失，比较了一系列压电和光学超声传感器的性能，并使用基于平面法布里-珀罗传感器的 PA 断层扫描仪对颅骨模型进行了成像。所有经颅光声测量都显示了与通过骨骼的声传播相关的频率和厚度相关的衰减和像差的典型影响。人们发现平凹光学谐振腔超声传感器的性能非常适合经颅光声测量。