Combined ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging of blood clot during microbubble-assisted sonothrombolysis

Abstract

Blockage of healthy blood vessels by blood clots can lead to serious or even life-threatening complications. The use of a combined ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging was explored for blood clot monitoring during microbubble-assisted sonothrombolysis. PA imaging is an emerging hybrid imaging modality that has garnered the attention of the biomedical imaging community in recent years. It enables the study of the composition of a blood clot due to its sensitivity toward optical absorption. Here, in vitro imaging of the side of a blood clot facing the microbubbles was done over time. The US and PA signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio value changes during microbubble-assisted sonothrombolysis were studied for two different local environments: blood clot in deionized water and blood clot in blood. In the first case, US and PA SNR values increased by 4.6% and reduced by 20.8%, respectively after 30 min of sonothrombolysis treatment. After 10 min of sonothrombolysis treatment of the blood clot in blood, the US and PA SNR values increased by 7.7% and 38.3%, respectively. The US and PA SNR value changes were recorded in response to its local environment. This technique can be used to determine the final composition of the blood clot which may, in turn, help in the administration of clot-dissolving drugs.

SARS-CoV-2-related vascular injury: mechanisms, imaging and models

“…PAT relies on light-induced ultrasound emission through transient thermoelastic expansion ( 37 ). When paired with ultrasound technology, PAT can detect the location and age of DVT ( Figure 2B ) as well as report thrombosis composition following microbubble-assisted sonothrombolysis treatment ( 38 , 39 ). These chemical and functional details can greatly impact a physician’s treatment plan when caring for a COVID-19 patient with complications related to thrombotic microangiopathy.…”

Technology Advancements in Blood Coagulation Measurements for Point-of-Care Diagnostic Testing

“…In this regard, understanding working principle and mechanism of these techniques facilitates researchers in identifying proper setup for laboratory or clinical applications, current gaps, and designing future devices. Among these technologies, photoacoustic/ultrasound measurements (Huang et al, 2005a;Huang C.-C. et al, 2011;Scola et al, 2011;Das and Pramanik, 2019) and microfluidic platforms have been used for in/ex vivo tests which are very promising for translational medicine when actual monitoring of the drug/anticoagulant effects or detection of circulating blood clots (CBCs) is desired (Karpiouk et al, 2008;Jain et al, 2016a). Table 1 lists different technologies including optical, electro-mechanical, photoacoustic, and electrical impedance spectroscopy for blood coagulation measurement, physical parameters, and their use in coagulation tests.…”

Recent advances in photoacoustic contrast agents for in vivo imaging

“…The generated PA waves are collected at the tissue surface and the absorption maps within the tissue are obtained using various image reconstruction techniques (Gutta et al, ; C. Huang, Wang, Nie, Wang, & Anastasio, ; H. Huang, Bustamante, Peterson, & Ye, ; Prakash, Sanny, Kalva, Pramanik, & Yalavarthy, ; Schoeder, Olefir, Kronbichler, Ntziachristos, & Wall, ; Treeby, Zhang, & Cox, ). The key advantages of PAI over pure optical and acoustic imaging methods are: (a) PAI offers a noninvasive, speckle‐free (Z. Guo, Li, & Wang, ), and label‐free imaging, (b) imaging depth up to ~4 cm in vivo (Lin et al, ) and ~11.6 cm in vitro (Y. Zhou, Wang, Lin, Wang, Chen, & Huang, ) have been achieved in biological tissues, (c) PAI can provide anatomical, functional, molecular, metabolic, genetic contrasts, biomarkers, oxygen metabolism, gene expression, and so on (Chuangsuwanich et al, ; D. Das & Pramanik, ; Deán‐Ben, Gottschalk, Mc Larney, Shoham, & Razansky, ; Moothanchery, Seeni, Xu, & Pramanik, ; D. Pan et al, ; Sivasubramanian, Periyasamy, Dienzo, & Pramanik, ), (d) PAI is a multiscale imaging modality, that is, it can image from cells to whole‐organs in humans and small‐animal whole‐body with consistent contrast (mainly light absorption contrast; L. V. Wang & Hu, ; L. V. Wang & Yao, )…”

“…Guo, Li, & Wang, 2009), and label-free imaging, (b) imaging depth up to~4 cm in vivo (Lin et al, 2018) and~11.6 cm in vitro (Y. Zhou, Wang, Lin, Wang, Chen, & Huang, 2016) have been achieved in biological tissues, (c) PAI can provide anatomical, functional, molecular, metabolic, genetic contrasts, biomarkers, oxygen metabolism, gene expression, and so on (Chuangsuwanich et al, 2018;D. Das & Pramanik, 2019;Deán-Ben, Gottschalk, Mc Larney, Shoham, & Razansky, 2017;Moothanchery, Seeni, Xu, & Pramanik, 2017;D.…”