Internal-Illumination Photoacoustic Tomography Enhanced by a Graded-scattering Fiber Diffuser

TL;DR

This paper introduces a low-cost, graded-scattering fiber diffuser for internal illumination in photoacoustic tomography, significantly enhancing imaging depth in biological tissues by providing uniform light emission and overcoming previous limitations.

Contribution

Developed a novel graded-scattering fiber diffuser that improves internal light delivery for photoacoustic imaging, enabling deeper tissue visualization with uniform illumination and reduced fabrication complexity.

Findings

Achieved ~10 cm imaging depth ex vivo

Demonstrated effective internal illumination in vivo in a swine model

Optimized fiber diffuser design parameters through Monte Carlo simulations

Abstract

The penetration depth of photoacoustic imaging in biological tissues has been fundamentally limited by the strong optical attenuation when light is delivered externally through the tissue surface. To address this issue, we previously reported internal-illumination photoacoustic imaging using a customized radial-emission optical fiber diffuser, which, however, has complex fabrication, high cost, and non-uniform light emission. To overcome these shortcomings, we have developed a new type of low-cost fiber diffusers based on a graded-scattering method in which the optical scattering of the fiber diffuser is gradually increased as the light travels. The graded scattering can compensate for the optical attenuation and provide relatively uniform light emission along the diffuser. We performed Monte Carlo numerical simulations to optimize several key design parameters, including the number of scattering segments, scattering anisotropy factor, divergence angle of the optical fiber, and reflective index of the surrounding medium. These optimized parameters collectively result in uniform light emission along the fiber diffuser and can be flexibly adjusted to accommodate different applications. We fabricated and characterized the prototype fiber diffuser made of agarose gel and intralipid. Equipped with the new fiber diffuser, we performed thorough proof-of-concept studies on ex vivo tissue phantoms and an in vivo swine model to demonstrate the deep-imaging capability (~10 cm achieved ex vivo) of photoacoustic tomography. We believe that the internal light delivery via the optimized fiber diffuser is an effective strategy to image deep targets (e.g., kidney) in large animals or humans.