Sulfate phantoms to mimic NIR photoacoustic response of whole blood at selected oxygen saturations

TL;DR

This paper develops sulfate-based phantoms that replicate the photoacoustic response of blood at various oxygen saturations, aiding in testing and calibrating multi-wavelength photoacoustic imaging systems.

Contribution

It provides a practical method to create inorganic solutions mimicking blood's optical and acoustic properties at specific oxygenation levels for imaging calibration.

Findings

Prepared sulfate solutions match blood's photoacoustic response at selected oxygen saturations.

Solutions are suitable for testing multi-wavelength photoacoustic imaging systems.

Method enables standardized calibration of blood oxygenation measurements.

Abstract

This paper presents a practical guide to prepare inorganic solutions that mimic the photoacoustic properties of whole blood at specific levels of oxygenation in the range of 700 nm to 850 nm, both in terms of optical absorption properties and the Gr{\"u}neisen coefficient. The goal is to provide aqueous solutions that can be injected in tissue-mimicking imaging phantoms to test the sensitivity and spectral capabilities of photoacoustic imaging systems operating at multiple wavelengths to estimate blood oxygenation.