Enhancement of high-resolution photoacoustic imaging with indocyanine green-conjugated carbon nanotubes

The current study indicates the feasibility of photoacoustic imaging (PAI) enhanced with contrast agents. A single-element ultrasound transducer (20 MHz) was used to detect PA signals for image reconstruction. To improve PA sensitivity, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) conjugated with indocyanine green (ICG) were injected into samples at various concentrations. PA signal amplitudes linearly increased with SWNT-ICG concentration owing to strong light absorption. Compared with SWNTs, SWNT-ICG augmented the signal intensity by approximately 2-fold (concentration: 300 nM). The enhanced optical absorption can allow the application of SWNT-ICG to enable PAI for specifically identifying tumors with high sensitivity.

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