ArticleBiomedical optics express2026
Fabrication of end-coated fibre-optic ultrasound transmitters.
Article in Biomedical optics express, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Obliquely emitting fibre-optic optical ultrasound (OpUS) probes show strong potential for guiding minimally invasive procedures, but the imprecise coating methods used to date deposit excess coating along the side of the fibre, which has been suspected to cause imaging artefacts. In this study, we aimed to confirm the source of these artefacts and to introduce an alternative coating method. Optical fibres cleaved at 40° were coated either by conventional dip-coating (DC) or by a new dip-transfer (DT) method, where the curvature of coating droplets allows for accurate alignment of angle-cleaved end-faces. To demonstrate the advantage of DT over DC deposition, fibre-optic ultrasound sources were fabricated using both methods and thoroughly characterised using planar and cylindrical acoustic field scans. Furthermore, a source fabricated with each method was assembled into a fibre-optic OpUS imaging probe and used to image a controlled phantom. DT transmitters generated significantly higher ultrasound pressures than DC transmitters (1.64 ± 0.14 MPa vs 0.53 ± 0.22 MPa, p < 0.05), with comparable mean bandwidths (24.7 ± 1.6 MHz vs 17.3 ± 6.9 MHz) with significantly lower variability. Cylindrical field scans revealed that DC transmitters exhibited strong secondary acoustic lobes (20% of primary beam amplitude), whereas sources fabricated with the DT method did not generate detectable spurious emissions. Imaging trials confirmed that coating of the fibre sides is the primary source of artefacts in obliquely emitting OpUS probes. The DT method effectively eliminates these artefacts while simultaneously enhancing acoustic performance. The higher acoustic performance and the absence of spurious emissions and their associated image artefacts will further advance the quality of OpUS image guidance of minimally invasive interventions. Furthermore, this study reinforces the need for specialised coating methods for obliquely-viewing OpUS probes and highlights the importance the coating coverage in determining image quality.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.