Photoacoustic Microscopy and Computed Tomography: From Bench to Bedside

Abstract

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) of biological tissue has seen immense growth in the past decade, providing unprecedented spatial resolution and functional information at depths in the optical diffusive regime. PAI uniquely combines the advantages of optical excitation and acoustic detection. The hybrid imaging modality features high sensitivity to optical absorption and wide scalability of spatial resolution with the desired imaging depth. Here we first summarize the fundamental principles underpinning the technology, then highlight its practical implementation, and finally discuss recent advances towards clinical translation.

Photoacoustic tomography of vascular compliance in humans

“…In addition to the information that photoacoustic imaging can provide including structure, flow velocity, molecule concentration, and oxygen saturation level of hemoglobin, [24][25][26][27] VE-PAT adds important elasticity information. VE-PAT has potential for use in many clinical applications, including detection of deep venous thrombosis, characterization of vulnerable plaque, and evaluation of atherosclerotic tissues.…”

Biomedical photoacoustics: fundamentals, instrumentation and perspectives on nanomedicine

“…96,97 A real-time and clear visualization of brain vasculature is of great importance to study its functions and diagnose developing diseases. Lu et al performed PEGylated conjugation with hollow gold nanospheres (PEG-HAuNS) as the contrast agent to show the brain vasculature of nude mice.…”

Low-cost photoacoustic imaging systems based on laser diode and light-emitting diode excitation

“…[2][3][4][5] In general, PAI has three major types: photoacoustic tomography or photoacoustic computed tomography (PAT/PACT), photoacoustic microscopy (PAM), and photoacoustic endoscopy (PAE). [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] In PAT, an expanded pulsed laser beam illuminates the imaging area homogeneously. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] The laser-induced photoacoustic signal can be acquired using either singleelement scanning or multi-element array detection, which determines the imaging speed and image quality with various time-reversal reconstruction algorithms.…”