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Photoacoustic Imaging: Principles and Applications

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Quantification of Biophysical Parameters in Medical Imaging

Abstract

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is an emerging imaging technology with potential for preclinical biomedical research and clinical applications. PA imaging, which relies on the generation of broadband acoustic waves via the absorption of intensity-modulated light in tissue, offers the combination of strong optical contrast and high spatial resolution provided by ultrasound. For excitation wavelengths in the visible and near-infrared region, image contrast is predominately due to haemoglobin. Exogenous contrast agents, such as dyes or genetically expressed absorbers, can be used to obtain targeted molecular contrast. Over the past decade, PA imaging has rapidly evolved into different microscopy and tomography modalities, while novel methodologies have led to a variety of exciting applications. This chapter explains the basic principles of PA imaging, its implementation in the different modalities and provides examples of applications to morphological, functional and molecular imaging. Furthermore, the challenge of recovering quantitative information from PA image data sets is described.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Thermal confinement requires the heating pulse to be much shorter than thermal relaxation of the source. Since thermal diffusion in tissue is orders of magnitude slower than typical excitation pulse durations, thermal confinement is not a strongly limiting factor in PA imaging. Stress confinement requires the heating pulse duration to be shorter than the time it takes the photoacoustic wave to propagate across the heated source region. Let us assume that the excitation laser provides optical pulses of t p = 10 ns duration and that photoacoustic waves are excited in a water-based medium, i.e. the speed of sound is c s = 1500 ms−1 = 1.5 μm ns−1. Within the duration of the excitation pulse, an acoustic wave will therefore travel a distance of s = c s t p = 1.5 μm ns−1 × 10 ns = 15 μm. In terms of photoacoustic imaging, this figure also approximates the maximum spatial resolution that can be achieved with this pulse duration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Physik, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

    Jan Laufer

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  1. Jan Laufer
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Correspondence to Jan Laufer .

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  1. Department of Radiology, Humboldt University of Berlin Charité University Hospital, Berlin, Germany

    Ingolf Sack

  2. Medical Physics and Metrological Information Technology, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt , Berlin, Germany

    Tobias Schaeffter

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Laufer, J. (2018). Photoacoustic Imaging: Principles and Applications. In: Sack, I., Schaeffter, T. (eds) Quantification of Biophysical Parameters in Medical Imaging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65924-4_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65924-4_13

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