MIT Reveals First Ever Laser Ultrasound Pictures of a Human Body

Researchers from MIT have revealed the very first images of a human generated through a novel laser ultrasound imaging technique. Unlike conventional ultrasound, the new technique does not require any skin contact with the body, dramatically amplifying the range of uses for doctors in clinical environments. New Atlas reports: A new non-contact ultrasound method involving lasers has now been effectively demonstrated by a team of researchers from MIT. The challenge in developing the new method has been figuring out a way to use a laser to produce sound waves. Traditional ultrasound uses sound waves to penetrate a human body and bounce back off different tissues. Light, of course, cannot penetrate a human body as deeply as sound. The new method has found a laser, pulsing at a wavelength of 1,550 nanometers, can generate sound waves when it hits human skin. A second laser, tracking the same wavelength, can subsequently detect the reflected sound waves and generate a picture similar to that of a conventional ultrasound.

In the new study, the researchers demonstrate the successful development of this novel laser ultrasound technique, from initial tests on a gelatin mold resembling human skin, to excised animal tissue. The study ultimately demonstrates the method's efficacy in human volunteers, presenting the first non-contact laser ultrasound images of a human forearm. At this point the method does not deliver images at resolutions equal to conventional ultrasound techniques, however, the researchers suggest this is just the first developmental milestone to be crossed. The system can potentially be refined and improved to deliver finer tissue detail. The study has been published in the Nature journal Light: Science and Applications.

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