PHOTOACOUSTICS: In vivo photoacoustic scanner images tumor vasculature and therapy response

摘要

Photoacoustics is the science of converting light-induced ultrasonic emissions to images. In the case of imaging cancerous tumor vasculature, researchers at University College London (UCL; London, England) have developed a new photoacoustic scanner based on a Fabry-Perot polymer film ultrasound sensor with a unique image reconstruction algorithm that can noninvasively image tumors at depths up to 10 mm. The in vivo and label-free technique improves over traditional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and x-ray computed tomography (CT) scans that typically require contrast agents to image blood vessels, as well as newer optical techniques such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) and multiphoton microscopy that are typically limited to soft-tissue imaging depths of 1 mm due to high scattering.