title: Photoacoustic tomography of small animal brain with a curved array transducer.
abstract: We present the application of a curved array photoacoustic tomographic imaging system that can provide rapid, high-resolution photoacoustic imaging of small animal brains. The system is optimized to produce a B-mode, 90-deg field-of-view image at sub-200-microm resolution at a frame rate of approximately 1 frame/second when a 10-Hz pulse repetition rate laser is employed. By rotating samples, a complete 360-deg scan can be achieved within 15 s. In previous work, two-dimensional (2-D) ex vivo mouse brain cortex imaging has been reported. We report three-dimensional (3-D) small animal brain imaging obtained with the curved array system. The results are presented as a series of 2-D cross-sectional images. Besides structural imaging, the blood oxygen saturation of the animal brain cortex is also measured in vivo. In addition, the system can measure the time-resolved relative changes in blood oxygen saturation level in the small animal brain cortex. Last, ultrasonic gel coupling, instead of the previously adopted water coupling, is conveniently used in near-real-time 2-D imaging.
authors.affiliation: Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Optical Imaging Laboratory, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Xinmai
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Anastasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maurudis
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gamelin
authors.forename: Andres
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aguirre
authors.forename: Quing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Lihong V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004453:Echoencephalography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000662:veterinary*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D051379:Mice; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D041622:Tomography, Optical / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000662:veterinary*; D014159:Transducers