Technical Note: Thermoacoustic imaging of hemorrhagic stroke: A feasibility study with a human skull.

Purpose To study the possibility of thermoacoustic imaging ( TAI) toward hemorrhagic stroke detection. Methods A single-transducer circular-scanning TAI system was used for data collection. An agar powder-based, tissue-mimicking phantom enclosed by a human skull was applied to simulate the brain for thermoacoustic imaging of hemorrhagic stroke. Results Several phantom experiments mimicking hemorrhagic stroke detection were conducted, and the results showed that 'hemorrhagic' targets as small as 0.9 mm in diameter could be detected. Conclusions This study suggests that TAI has the potential to be used for noninvasive hemorrhagic stroke detection and identification of hemorrhagic from ischemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]