Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) offers three-dimensional (3D) structural and functional imaging of living biological tissue with label-free, optical absorption contrast. These attributes lend PAT imaging to a wide variety of applications in clinical medicine and preclinical research. Despite advances in live animal imaging with PAT, there is still a need for 3D imaging at centimeter depths in real-time. We report the development of four dimensional (4D) PAT, which integrates time resolutions with 3D spatial resolution, obtained using spherical arrays of ultrasonic detectors. The 4D PAT technique generates motion pictures of imaged tissue, enabling real time tracking of dynamic physiological and pathological processes at hundred micrometer-millisecond resolutions. The 4D PAT technique is used here to image needle-based drug delivery and pharmacokinetics. We also use this technique to monitor 1) fast hemodynamic changes during inter-ictal epileptic seizures and 2) temperature variations during tumor thermal therapy.

In this study, we monitor the progress of vasculature in early tumor growth using photoacoustic imaging over a 20 day period after subcutaneous inoculation of breast cancer tumor cells in a mouse. With 532 nm laser pulses employed as an irradiation source, the photoacoustic images were obtained through the photoacoustic signals received by a hydrophone in orthogonal mode. The morphological characteristics of vasculature in tumor region are clearly resolved in the photoacoustic images, and the change in structure as well as the increase in density can be identified. Moreover, the average photoacoustic signal strength of vasculature in tumor region, which is highly correlated with the total hemoglobin concentration of blood, is enhanced during early tumor growth. These results indicate the feasibility of detecting early stage tumor and monitoring the progress of anti-angiogenic therapy by photoacoustic imaging.

Purpose:: The feasibility of medical imaging using a medical linear accelerator to generate acoustic waves is investigated. This modality, x‐ray acoustic computed tomography (XACT), has the potential to enable deeper tissue penetration in tissue than photoacoustic tomography via laser excitation.Methods:: Short pulsed (μs‐range) 10 MV x‐ray beams with dose‐rate of approximately 30 Gy/min were generated from a medical linear accelerator. The acoustic signals were collected with an ultrasound transducer (500 KHz central frequency) positioned around an object. The transducer, driven by a computer‐controlled step motor to scan around the object, detected the resulting acoustic signals in the imaging plane at each scanning position. A pulse preamplifier, with a bandwidth of 20 KHz–2 MHz at −3 dB, and switchable gains of 40 and 60 dB, received the signals from the transducer and delivered the amplified signals to a secondary amplifier. The secondary amplifier had bandwidth of 20 KHz–30 MHz at −3 dB, and a gain range of 10–60 dB. Signals were recorded and averaged 128 times by an oscilloscope. A sampling rate of 100 MHz was used to record 2500 data points at each view angle. One set of data incorporated 200 positions as the receiver moved 360°. The x‐ray generated acoustic image was then reconstructed with the filtered back projection algorithm.Results:: The x‐ray generated acoustic signals were detected from a lead rod embedded in a chicken breast tissue. The authors found that the acoustic signal was proportional to the x‐ray dose deposition, with a correlation of 0.998. The two‐dimensional XACT images of the lead rod embedded in chicken breast tissue were found to be in good agreement with the shape of the object.Conclusions:: The first x‐ray acoustic computed tomography image is presented. The new modality may be useful for a number of applications, such as providing the location of a fiducial, or monitoring x‐ray dose distribution during radiation therapy. Although much work is needed to improve the image quality of XACT and to explore its performance in other irradiation energies, the benefits of this modality, as highlighted in this work, encourage further study.

Acoustic waves are induced via the thermoacoustic effect in objects exposed to a pulsed beam of ionizing radiation. This phenomenon has interesting potential applications in both radiotherapy dosimetry and treatment guidance as well as low‐dose radiological imaging. After initial work in the field in the 1980s and early 1990s, little research was done until 2013 when interest was rejuvenated, spurred on by technological advances in ultrasound transducers and the increasing complexity of radiotherapy delivery systems. Since then, many studies have been conducted and published applying ionizing radiation‐induced acoustic principles into three primary research areas: Linear accelerator photon beam dosimetry, proton therapy range verification, and radiological imaging. This review article introduces the theoretical background behind ionizing radiation‐induced acoustic waves, summarizes recent advances in the field, and provides an outlook on how the detection of ionizing radiation‐induced acoustic waves can be used for relative andin vivodosimetry in photon therapy, localization of the Bragg peak in proton therapy, and as a low‐dose medical imaging modality. Future prospects and challenges for the clinical implementation of these techniques are discussed.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) in a poly(ethylene)ghycol solution are a biocompatible transporters with strong optical absorption in the near-infrared region, in which the biological tissue is almost transparent with very low absorbance. Here, antibody-functionalized SWNTs for tumor early detection with photoacoustic molecular imaging in vivo are reported. To lay the groundwork for this goal and insure system stability, images were collected in tissue simulating phantoms to determine appropriate detectable concentrations of SWNTs. Preliminary in vitro and in vivo results showed that a high contrast and a high efficient targeting of integrin $αvβ3$ positive U87 human glioblastoma tumours in mice could be achieved. The nontoxicity of functionalized SWNTs has also been demonstrated in our experiment; this feature ensures that SWNTs can be used for clinical applications. This study suggests that photoacoustic molecular imaging with antibody-functionalized SWNTs has the potential to be an effective early tumor diagnosis method.