We developed a simple and effective contrast for tissue characterization based on the recently proposed dual-pulse nonlinear photoacoustic technology. The new contrast takes advantage of the temperature dependence of Grüneisen parameter of tissue and involves a dual-pulse laser excitation process. A short pulse first heats the sample and causes a temperature jump, which then leads to the change of Grüneisen parameter and amplitude of the photoacoustic signal of the second pulse. For different tissues, the induced rate or trend of change is expected to be different, which constitutes the basis of the new contrast. Preliminary phantom experiment in blood and lipid mixtures and in vitro experiment in fatty rat liver have demonstrated that the proposed contrast has the capability of fast characterization of lipid-rich and blood-rich tissues.

Date Published: 11 March 2015
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 9323, Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2015, 93231E (11 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2078453

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9323:
Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2015
Alexander A. Oraevsky; Lihong V. Wang, Editor(s)