Characterizing Microscopic Morphology in Biological Tissue with Photoacoustic Spectrum Analysis: Feasibility Study with Simulations and Experiments

摘要

This study investigates the feasibility of characterizing the microstructures within a biological tissue by analyzing the frequency spectrum of the photoacoustic signal from biological tissue. Hypotheses are derived from theoretical analyses on the relationship between the dimensions as well as concentrations of the optical absorbing sources within the region-of-interest and the linear model fitted to the power spectra of photoacoustic signals. The hypotheses are afterwards validated, following the procedures of ultrasound spectrum analysis, by simulations and experiments with phantoms fabricated by embedding the optically absorbing polyethylene microspheres in porcine gelatin. Quantitatively comparable simulation and experiment results substantiated that photoacoustic spectrum analysis could be a potential tool for characterizing microstructures and optical properties in biological samples.