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Multiscale photoacoustic microscopy and computed tomography

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 503–509 (2009)Cite this article

Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) is probably the fastest-growing area of biomedical imaging technology, owing to its capacity for high-resolution sensing of rich optical contrast in vivo at depths beyond the optical transport mean free path (∼1 mm in human skin). Existing high-resolution optical imaging technologies, such as confocal microscopy and two-photon microscopy, have had a fundamental impact on biomedicine but cannot reach the penetration depths of PAT. By utilizing low ultrasonic scattering, PAT indirectly improves tissue transparency up to 1000-fold and consequently enables deeply penetrating functional and molecular imaging at high spatial resolution. Furthermore, PAT promises in vivo imaging at multiple length-scales; it can image subcellular organelles to organs with the same contrast origin — an important application in multiscale systems biology research.

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Figure 1: Multiscale scanning photoacoustic imaging of small animals in vivo.
Figure 2: Non-invasive photoacoustic computed tomography of small animals.
Figure 3: In vivo photoacoustic computed tomography of the human breast acquired at 1064-nm laser wavelength.

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Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the support by the National Institutes of Health Grants R01 EB000712, R01 NS046214, R01 EB008085 and U54 CA136398. Thanks to Song Hu for providing Fig. 1d.

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  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Optical Imaging Laboratory, Washington University in St. Louis, Campus Box 1097, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, 63130-4899, Missouri, USA

    Lihong V. Wang

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The author has a competing financial interest in Microphotoacoustics, Inc. and Endra, Inc., which however did not support this work.

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Wang, L. Multiscale photoacoustic microscopy and computed tomography. Nature Photon 3, 503–509 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.157

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