Niche preclinical and clinical applications of photoacoustic imaging with endogenous contrast

Samuel John; Scott Hester; Maryam Basij; Avijit Paul; Marvin Xavierselvan; Mohammad Mehrmohammadi; Srivalleesha Mallidi

doi:10.1016/j.pacs.2023.100533

Niche preclinical and clinical applications of photoacoustic imaging with endogenous contrast

Photoacoustics. 2023 Jul 17:32:100533. doi: 10.1016/j.pacs.2023.100533. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Authors

Samuel John¹, Scott Hester², Maryam Basij¹, Avijit Paul², Marvin Xavierselvan², Mohammad Mehrmohammadi^{3

4

5}, Srivalleesha Mallidi^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA.
³ Department of Imaging Sciences, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
⁵ Wilmot Cancer Institute, Rochester, NY, USA.
⁶ Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.

Abstract

In the past decade, photoacoustic (PA) imaging has attracted a great deal of popularity as an emergent diagnostic technology owing to its successful demonstration in both preclinical and clinical arenas by various academic and industrial research groups. Such steady growth of PA imaging can mainly be attributed to its salient features, including being non-ionizing, cost-effective, easily deployable, and having sufficient axial, lateral, and temporal resolutions for resolving various tissue characteristics and assessing the therapeutic efficacy. In addition, PA imaging can easily be integrated with the ultrasound imaging systems, the combination of which confers the ability to co-register and cross-reference various features in the structural, functional, and molecular imaging regimes. PA imaging relies on either an endogenous source of contrast (e.g., hemoglobin) or those of an exogenous nature such as nano-sized tunable optical absorbers or dyes that may boost imaging contrast beyond that provided by the endogenous sources. In this review, we discuss the applications of PA imaging with endogenous contrast as they pertain to clinically relevant niches, including tissue characterization, cancer diagnostics/therapies (termed as theranostics), cardiovascular applications, and surgical applications. We believe that PA imaging's role as a facile indicator of several disease-relevant states will continue to expand and evolve as it is adopted by an increasing number of research laboratories and clinics worldwide.

Keywords: Clinical; Diagnostics; Endogenous; Image-guided; Interventions; Photoacoustics; Spectroscopy; Theranostics; Ultrasound.

Publication types

Review