Establish an optimal CT-to-acoustic-velocity mapping for skull elastic properties (especially shear speed)

Determine an optimal quantitative mapping from X-ray computed tomography Hounsfield units to the adult human skull’s compressional and shear wave speeds to enable heterogeneous elastic skull models in transcranial photoacoustic computed tomography, with particular emphasis on accurately estimating the shear wave speed.

Background

The authors demonstrate de-aberration in transcranial PACT using a homogeneous elastic skull model and note that extending to heterogeneous skull models would be desirable. However, they emphasize that accurately estimating skull elastic properties is challenging.

They cite prior literature on mapping CT Hounsfield units to acoustic speeds but state that a consensus optimal solution is lacking, particularly for shear wave speed, which is critical for accurate elastic modeling of skull-induced aberrations in PACT.