Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy
Volume 6, Issue 2 , Pages 128-134 , June 2009

Terahertz pulsed imaging—A potential medical imaging modality?

  • Emma Pickwell-MacPherson, PhD

      Affiliations

    • The Electronic Engineering Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +852 26098260.
  • ,
  • Vincent P. Wallace

      Affiliations

    • School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia

References 

  1. Hendee W. …And now for the next 20 years. Physics world. Bristol: Institute of Physics; 2008;p. 54
  2. Abbott D, Zhang XC. Scanning the issue: T-ray imaging, sensing, and retection. Proceedings of the IEEE. 2007;1509–1513
  3. Siegel PH. Terahertz technology. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 2002;50:910–928
  4. Austin DH. Picosecond optoelectronics switching and gating in silicon. Applied Physics Letters. 1975;26:101–103
  5. Grischkowsky D, Keiding S, Vanexter M, Fattinger C. Far-infrared time-domain spectroscopy with terahertz beams of dielectrics and semiconductors. Journal of the Optical Society of America B-Optical Physics. 1990;7:2006–2015
  6. Ralph SE, Perkowitz S, Katzenellenbogen N, Grischkowsky D. Terahertz spectroscopy of optically thick multilayered semiconductor structures. Journal of the Optical Society of America B-Optical Physics. 1994;11:2528–2532
  7. Hu BB, Nuss MC. Imaging with terahertz waves. Optics Letters. 1995;20:1716-&
  8. Wallace VP, MacPherson E, Zeitler JA, Reid C. Three-dimensional imaging of optically opaque materials using nonionizing terahertz radiation. Journal of the Optical Society of America A-Optics Image Science and Vision. 2008;25:3120–3133
  9. Clothier RH, Bourne N. Effects of THz exposure on human primary keratinocyte differentiation and viability. Journal of Biological Physics. 2003;29:179–185
  10. Zeni O, Gallerano GP, Perrotta A, et al. Cytogenetic observations in human peripheral blood leukocytes following in vitro exposure to THz radiation: a pilot study. Health Physics. 2007;92:349–357
  11. Chen JH, Avram HE, Crooks LE, Arakawa M, Kaufman L, Brito AC. In vivo relaxation-times and hydrogen density at 0.063–4. 85-t in rats with implanted mammary adenocarcinomas. Radiology. 1992;184:427–434
  12. Bruehlmeier M, Roelcke U, Blauenstein P, et al. Measurement of the extracellular space in brain tumors using Br-76-bromide and PET. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 2003;44:1210–1218
  13. Knobloch P, Schildknecht C, Kleine-Ostmann T, et al. Medical THz imaging: an investigation of histo-pathological samples. Physics in Medicine and Biology. 2002;47:3875–3884
  14. Berry E, Handley JW, Fitzgerald AJ, et al. Multispectral classification techniques for terahertz pulsed imaging: an example in histopathology. Medical Engineering & Physics. 2004;26:423–430
  15. Fischer BM, Helm H, Jepsen PU. Chemical recognition with broadband THz spectroscopy. Proceedings of the IEEE. 2007;95:1592–1604
  16. Zeitler JA, Newnham DA, Taday PF, et al. Temperature dependent terahertz pulsed spectroscopy of carbamazepine. Thermochimica Acta. 2005;436:71–77
  17. Shen YC, Upadhya PC, Linfield EH, Beere HE, Davies AG. Ultrabroadband terahertz radiation from low-temperature-grown GaAs photoconductive emitters. Applied Physics Letters. 2003;83:3117–3119
  18. Wu Q, Zhang XC. Free-space electrooptic sampling of terahertz beams. Applied Physics Letters. 1995;67:3523–3525
  19. Png GM, Choi JW, Ng BWH, Mickan SP, Abbott D, Zhang XC. The impact of hydration changes in fresh bio-tissue on THz spectroscopic measurements. Physics in Medicine and Biology. 2008;53:3501–3517
  20. Huang SY, Wang YXJ, Wyeung DK, Ahuja AT, Zhang YT, Pickwell-MacPherson E. Tissue characterization using terahertz pulsed imaging in reflection geometry. Physics in Medicine and Biology. 2009;54:149–160
  21. Huang S, Ashworth PC, Kan KWC, et al. Improved sample characterization in terahertz reflection imaging and spectroscopy. Optics Express. 2009;17:3848–3854
  22. Jepsen PU, Jensen JK, Moller U. Characterization of aqueous alcohol solutions in bottles with THz reflection spectroscopy. Optics Express. 2008;16:9318–9331
  23. Wang KL, Mittleman DM. Metal wires for terahertz wave guiding. Nature. 2004;432:376–379
  24. Cunningham J, Byrne M, Upadhya P, Lachab M, Linfield EH, Davies AG. Terahertz evanescent field microscopy of dielectric materials using on-chip waveguides. Applied Physics Letters. 2008;92
  25. Fischer BM, Walther M, Jepsen PU. Far-infrared vibrational modes of DNA components studied by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Physics in Medicine and Biology. 2002;47:3807–3814
  26. Nuss MC, Orenstein J. Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Millimeter and submillimeter wave spectroscopy of solids. Berlin 33: Springer-Verlag; 1998;p. 7–50
  27. Nakajima S, Hoshina H, Yamashita M, Otani C, Miyoshi N. Terahertz imaging diagnostics of cancer tissues with a chemometrics technique. Applied Physics Letters. 2007;90:3
  28. Mittleman DM, Gupta M, Neelamani R, Baraniuk RG, Rudd JV, Koch M. Recent advances in terahertz imaging. Applied Physics B-Lasers Optics. 1999;68:1085–1094
  29. Taylor ZD, Singh RS, Culjat MO, et al. Reflective terahertz imaging of porcine skin burns. Optics Letters. 2008;33:1258–1260
  30. Cole BE, Woodward RM, Crawley DA, Wallace VP, Arnone DD, Pepper M. Terahertz imaging and spectroscopy of human skin in vivo. Commercial and biomedical applications of ultrashort pulse lasers; laser plasma generation and diagnostics. San Jose (CA, USA): SPIE; 2001;p. 1–10
  31. Pickwell E, Cole BE, Fitzgerald AJ, Pepper M, Wallace VP. In vivo study of human skin using pulsed terahertz radiation. Physics in Medicine and Biology. 2004;49:1595–1607
  32. Pickwell E, Cole BE, Fitzgerald AJ, Wallace VP, Pepper M. Simulation of terahertz pulse propagation in biological systems. Applied Physics Letters. 2004;84:2190–2192
  33. Pickwell E, Fitzgerald AJ, Cole BE, et al. Simulating the response of terahertz radiation to basal cell carcinoma using ex vivo spectroscopy measurements. Journal of Biomedical Optics. 2005;10:064021–64027
  34. Wallace VP, Fitzgerald AJ, Pickwell E, et al. Terahertz pulsed spectroscopy of human basal cell carcinoma. Applied Spectroscopy. 2006;60:1127–1133
  35. Woodward RM, Wallace VP, Pye RJ, et al. Terahertz pulse imaging of ex vivo basal cell carcinoma. Journal of Investigative Dermatology. 2003;120:72–78
  36. Wallace VP, Fitzgerald AJ, Shankar S, et al. Terahertz pulsed imaging of basal cell carcinoma ex vivo and in vivo. British Journal of Dermatology. 2004;151:424–432
  37. Ashworth PC, Pickwell-MacPherson E, Provenzano E, et al. Terahertz pulsed spectroscopy of freshly excised human breast cancer. Optics Express. 2009;17:12444–12454
  38. Fitzgerald AJ, Wallace VP, Jimenez-Linan M, et al. Terahertz pulsed imaging of human breast tumors. Radiology. 2006;239:533–540
  39. Ashworth P, O’Kelly P, Purushotham A, et al. An intra-operative THz probe for use during the surgical removal of breast tumors. In:  Siegel MP editors. Proceedngs of the 33rd international conference on infrared, millimeter, and terahertz waves. Pasedena, CA: IEEE; 2008;

PII: S1572-1000(09)00061-1

doi: 10.1016/j.pdpdt.2009.07.002

Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy
Volume 6, Issue 2 , Pages 128-134 , June 2009