Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kruger, Robert A.
• Kiser, William L.
• Reinecke, Daniel R.
• Kruger, Gabe A.
• Miller, Kathy D.

Titel

Thermoacoustic Molecular Imaging of Small Animals

Ist Teil von

• Molecular imaging, 2003-04, Vol.2 (2), p.153535002003031

Ort / Verlag

Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications

Erscheinungsjahr

2003

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We have designed, constructed, and tested a thermoacoustic computed tomography (TCT) scanner for imaging optical absorption in small animals in three dimensions. The device utilizes pulsed laser irradiation (680–1064 nm) and a unique, 128-element transducer array. We quantified the isotropic spatial resolution of this scanner to be 0.35 mm. We describe a dual-wavelength subtraction technique for isolating optical dyes with TCT. Phantom experiments demonstrate that we can detect 5 fmol of a near-infrared dye (indocyanine green, ICG) in a 1-ML volume using dual-wavelength subtraction. Initial TCT imaging in phantoms and in two sacrificed mice suggests that three-dimensional, optical absorption patterns in small animals can be detected with an order of magnitude better spatial resolution and an order of magnitude better low-contrast detectability in small animals when compared to fluorescence imaging or diffusion optical tomography.