The prostate gland or other region of interest is stimulated with either a light source or an ultrasound source, resulting in photoacoustic or ultrasound acoustic waves which are focused by an acoustic lens and captured by a specific 1- or 2D sensor array and subsequently displayed as a C-scan on a computer screen. The amplitude of the waves generated by the stimulation is proportional to the optical absorption of the tissue element at that spatial location. Variability in tissue absorption results in C-scan image contrast.
