title: Whole-body ring-shaped confocal photoacoustic computed tomography of small animals in vivo.
abstract: We report a novel small-animal whole-body imaging system called ring-shaped confocal photoacoustic computed tomography (RC-PACT). RC-PACT is based on a confocal design of free-space ring-shaped light illumination and 512-element full-ring ultrasonic array signal detection. The free-space light illumination maximizes the light delivery efficiency, and the full-ring signal detection ensures a full two-dimensional view aperture for accurate image reconstruction. Using cylindrically focused array elements, RC-PACT can image a thin cross section with 0.10 to 0.25 mm in-plane resolutions and 1.6  s/frame acquisition time. By translating the mouse along the elevational direction, RC-PACT provides a series of cross-sectional images of the brain, liver, kidneys, and bladder.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Muhammad R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Chatni
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maslov
authors.forename: Zijian
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Anastasio
authors.forename: Lihong V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D033401:Microscopy, Acoustic / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000662:veterinary*; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000662:veterinary*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000662:veterinary*