Noninvasive and high-resolving photoacoustic dermoscopy of human skin

Abstract

We proposed and developed a photoacoustic (PA) dermoscope equipped with an integrated PA probe to achieve quantification and high-resolution, high-contrast deep imaging of human skin. The PA probe, with light-sound confocal excitation and reception, is specially designed, and integrated with an objective lens, an ultrasound transducer, and an inverted-triangle coupling cup to facilitate convenient implementation in a clinical setting. The PA dermoscope was utilized for noninvasive and high-resolution imaging of epidermal and dermal structure in volunteers. The imaging results demonstrated that the characteristic parameters of skin disease, including pigment distribution and thickness, vascular diameter, and depth, can be obtained by the PA dermoscope, confirming that PA dermoscopy can serve as a potential tool for the diagnosis and curative effect evaluation of human skin disease.

Photoacoustic viscoelasticity imaging dedicated to mechanical characterization of biological tissues

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] It overcomes the resolution disadvantages of pure optical imaging and the contrast disadvantages of pure ultrasound imaging, bene¯ting from the capacity of high-resolution sensing optical contrast at depths beyond the optical transport mean-free-paths. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] PA imaging is based on the PA e®ect. 34 When irradiated by pulsed laser, tissue absorbs the optical energy and converts it into ultrasound due to thermal expansion, which then can be detected by transducers.…”

Protein‐Modified CuS Nanotriangles: A Potential Multimodal Nanoplatform for In Vivo Tumor Photoacoustic/Magnetic Resonance Dual‐Modal Imaging

“…However, the low sensitivity of MRI limits its applications in monitoring small tissue lesions. [1c] In contrast, photoacoustic imaging (PAI), a new hybrid imaging method based upon photoacoustic effect, combining optical and ultrasound properties, not only offers unprecedented advantages of the high sensitivity of optical imaging but also provides the good penetration depth of acoustic imaging . One key way for PAI to readily be integrated into medicine is as an “add‐on” to presently accepted high‐resolution in vivo imaging systems, such as MRI.…”

Photoacoustic confocal dermoscope with a waterless coupling and impedance matching opto-sono probe

“…Skin photoacoustic (PA) microscopy is an emerging biomedical imaging that combines the high-contrast and spectroscopicbased specificity of optical imaging with the high spatial resolution of ultrasound imaging in a modality [1,2]. Scattering of ultrasonic in tissue is far less than the scattering of light; thus, PA microscopy can achieve images with high-resolution and high optical-absorption contrast extending into deep tissue and is superior to traditional dermoscopy [3][4][5]. In PA microscopes, the incident laser is usually focused into a spot laser, and then is used to illuminate biological tissues to generate ultrasonic signals.…”

“…However, the acoustic lens/piezoelectric elements of focused detectors are mostly bowl structured [12,13], and usually utilize a sink or coupling cup to make the PA signal coupling in the ultrasonic detector. In the process, this approach can effectively reduce the reflective loss of PA signals, but the water is easy to pollute, needs to be replaced frequently, and forms fog or water droplets on the surface of the objective lens affecting the focusing effect directly, which will limit the human skin photoacoustic imaging and its clinical application [5,11]. In addition, the ultrasound detectors in most current medical imaging systems are made of piezoelectric composite or piezoelectric crystals [14,15].…”