Photoacoustic tomography of pathological tissue in ex vivo mouse hearts

In the present study, we evaluate the applicability of ex-vivo photoacoustic imaging (PAI) in organs of small animals. We used photoacoustic tomography (PAT) to visualize infarcted areas within mouse hearts and compared it to other imaging techniques (MRI and μCT). In order to induce ischemia an in-vivo ligation of the Ramus interventricularis anterior (RIVA, left anterior descending, LAD) was performed on nine wild type C41 mice. After varying survival periods the mice were sacrificed. The hearts were excised and immediately transferred into a formaldehyde solution for conservation. Various wavelengths in the visible and near infrared region (500 nm - 1000 nm) had been tested to find the best representation of the ischemic regions. Samples were illuminated with nanosecond laser pulses delivered by an Nd:YAG pumped optical parametric oscillator. Ultrasound detection was achieved by an optical Mach-Zehnder interferometer working as an integrating line detector. For acoustic coupling the samples were located inside a water tank. The voxel data are computed from the measurement data by a Fourier-domain based reconstruction algorithm, followed by a sequence of inverse Radon transforms. Results clearly show the capability of PAI to detect pathological tissue and the possibility to produce three-dimensional images with resolutions well below 100 μm. Different wavelengths allow the representation of structure inside an organ or on the surface even without contrast enhancing tracers.