title: Photoacoustic microscopy of bilirubin in tissue phantoms.
abstract: Determining both bilirubin's concentration and its spatial distribution are important in disease diagnosis. Here, for the first time, we applied quantitative multiwavelength photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) to detect bilirubin concentration and distribution simultaneously. By measuring tissue-mimicking phantoms with different bilirubin concentrations, we showed that the root-mean-square error of prediction has reached 0.52 and 0.83 mg/dL for pure bilirubin and for blood-mixed bilirubin detection (with 100% oxygen saturation), respectively. We further demonstrated the capability of the PAM system to image bilirubin distribution both with and without blood. Finally, by underlaying bilirubin phantoms with mouse skins, we showed that bilirubin can be imaged with consistent accuracy down to >400 μm in depth. Our results show that PAM has potential for noninvasive bilirubin monitoring in vivo, as well as for further clinical applications.
authors.affiliation: Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Optical Imaging Laboratory, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Chi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Da-Kang
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Lihong V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001663:Bilirubin / Q000378:metabolism*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007834:Lasers; D051379:Mice; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D061088:Photoacoustic Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D001663:Bilirubin