title: Evans blue dye-enhanced capillary-resolution photoacoustic microscopy in vivo.
abstract: Complete and continuous imaging of microvascular networks is crucial for a wide variety of biomedical applications. Photoacoustic tomography can provide high resolution microvascular imaging using hemoglobin within red blood cells (RBCs) as an endogenic contrast agent. However, intermittent RBC flow in capillaries results in discontinuous and fragmentary capillary images. To overcome this problem, we use Evans blue (EB) dye as a contrast agent for in vivo photoacoustic imaging. EB has strong optical absorption and distributes uniformly in the blood stream by chemically binding to albumin. With the help of EB, complete and continuous microvascular networks--especially capillaries--are imaged. The diffusion dynamics of EB leaving the blood stream and the clearance dynamics of the EB-albumin complex are also quantitatively investigated.
authors.affiliation: Washington University in St. Louis, Optical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Junjie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maslov
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Lihong V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002196:Capillaries / Q000166:cytology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003287:Contrast Media; D005070:Evans Blue; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D033401:Microscopy, Acoustic / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D005070:Evans Blue