Real-time volumetric lipid imaging in vivo by intravascular photoacoustics at 20 frames per second

Min Wu; Geert Springeling; Matija Lovrak; Frits Mastik; Sophinese Iskander-Rizk; Tianshi Wang; Heleen M M van Beusekom; A F W van der Steen; Gijs Van Soest

doi:10.1364/BOE.8.000943

Real-time volumetric lipid imaging in vivo by intravascular photoacoustics at 20 frames per second

Biomed Opt Express. 2017 Jan 18;8(2):943-953. doi: 10.1364/BOE.8.000943. eCollection 2017 Feb 1.

Authors

Min Wu¹, Geert Springeling², Matija Lovrak³, Frits Mastik¹, Sophinese Iskander-Rizk¹, Tianshi Wang¹, Heleen M M van Beusekom¹, A F W van der Steen⁴, Gijs Van Soest¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Thorax Center, Erasmus University Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
² Department of Experimental Medical Instrumentation, Erasmus University Medical Center PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, van der Maasweg 9, 2629 HZ Delft, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Thorax Center, Erasmus University Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Imaging Science and Technology, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands; Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 518055 Shenzhen, China.

Abstract

Lipid deposition can be assessed with combined intravascular photoacoustic/ultrasound (IVPA/US) imaging. To date, the clinical translation of IVPA/US imaging has been stalled by a low imaging speed and catheter complexity. In this paper, we demonstrate imaging of lipid targets in swine coronary arteries in vivo, at a clinically useful frame rate of 20 s^-1. We confirmed image contrast for atherosclerotic plaque in human samples ex vivo. The system is on a mobile platform and provides real-time data visualization during acquisition. We achieved an IVPA signal-to-noise ratio of 20 dB. These data show that clinical translation of IVPA is possible in principle.

Keywords: (110.0110) Imaging systems; (110.5120) Photoacoustic imaging.