| abstract |
Disclosed herein are a method and apparatus for photoacoustic imaging (PAI) or ultrasound (US) imaging of biological tissue (18). The method comprises recording 2D-PAI and/or US images (46) of said biological tissue (18), each 2D-PAI or US image (46) being associated with a corresponding image plane (38), providing, prior to recording said 2D-PAI or US images (46) of said biological tissue (18), an optical pattern (28, 40) on or close to a surface of said biological tissue, said optical pattern (28, 40) comprising one or more optical dyes configured for absorbing light at a pattern-characteristic wavelength. The optical pattern (28, 40) is configured such that the location of the image plane (38) with respect to the optical pattern (28, 40) can be determined at least approximately from said representation of the optical pattern (28, 40) in said 2D-PAI image (46) and/or that the relative location of consecutively taken 2D-PAI images (46) with respect to each other can be at least approximately determined. |