Patent Abstract:
the present invention is directed to a method / system of for monitoring tissue properties in real time during treatment using optoacoustic imaging system . optoacoustic monitoring provides a control of the extent of abnormal tissue damage and assures minimal damage to surrounding normal tissues . such technique can be applied for monitoring and controlling during surgical , therapeutic , and cosmetic procedures performed in various tissues and organs .

Detailed Description:
laser optoacoustic imaging is an imaging technique recently proposed for medical diagnostics ( screening ). laser optoacoustic imaging has potential to become an imaging technique with high contrast , sensitivity and resolution , and of moderate cost . in the present invention , application of laser optoacoustic imaging is proposed for tissue physical properties monitoring during treatment in real time . application of radiation , heating , or cooling induces changes in tissue temperature and optical and thermophysical properties . optoacoustic technique is sensitive to changes in tissue temperature , optical properties ( absorption , scattering and effective attenuation coefficient ), and the following thermophysical parameters : gruneisen coefficient , thermal expansion coefficient , speed of sound , and heat capacity at constant pressure . in the present invention , laser interstitial coagulation is used for treatment of malignant tumors , which is based on heating of tumors by laser radiation resulting in coagulation and death of cancer cells . there is a need to monitor the degree of coagulation and the dimensions of the coagulation zone to avoid unwanted thermal damage to normal tissues surrounding the tumor . the present invention demonstrates that optoacoustic signals measured in normal and coagulated tissues are different . in particular , the absorption and scattering coefficient of coagulated tissue is higher than that of normal tissue . experiments were conducted demonstrating that the changes in the optical properties can be detected during laser coagulation in real time . this technique can be applied if any other type of radiation ( microwave , radiofrequency , ultrasonic , etc .) is used for tissue heating . the invention can potentially be used for precise monitoring of interstitial coagulation of tumors in various organs such as breast , prostate , etc . it is proposed that laser optoacoustic can also be used for monitoring of interstitial coagulation during treatment of benign lesions . one of the most important applications is monitoring prostate tissue coagulation during treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia . also disclosed in the present invention is laser optoacoustic monitoring of tissue temperature during hyperthermia . hyperthermia has a great potential for treatment of malignant lesions in many organs . temperature monitoring during these procedures is vital for successful treatment . laser optoacoustic imaging is capable of non - invasive detection of 1 ° c . temperature change at the depth of up to several centimeters in some tissues . all the conventional imaging techniques fail to detect a temperature change at this depth in tissue . further disclosed in the present invention are applications of laser optoacoustic monitoring for other types of therapy . for example , cryotherapy is being widely used for treatment . there is a need to monitor dimensions of frozen zone during the cryotherapy to avoid unwanted damage to normal tissues . optical and thermophysical properties of normal and frozen tissues are different providing high contrast in optoacoustic images . the movement of boundary between normal and frozen tissues should be clearly seen . therefore , the optoacoustic monitoring can be used for monitoring physical properties of tissue during cryotherapy in real time . administration of drugs can change optical properties of tissue . for instance , application of photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy increases optical absorption coefficient of tissue . this can be used to study pharmacokinetics of the photosensitizers before , during , and after treatment . surgical tools have optical and acoustic properties substantially different from tissue properties . along with optical contrast between normal and tumor tissue , it is possible to use this technique for navigation during surgery or biopsy . in one embodiment of the present invention , there is provided a method of monitoring tissue properties in real time during treatment using an laser optoacoustic imaging system , comprising the steps of administering a treatment agent to the tissue and applying the optoacoustic imaging system to the treated tissue . in a preferred embodiment , the tissue can be selected from various organs with tumors or other lesions . representative organs which can be examined using this technique include liver , kidney , breast , prostate , brain , heart , eye and blood vessels . alternatively , the tissue is from mucosa of a hollow organ , such as oral cavity , gastrointestinal tract , intestine , colon , rectum , bladder and vagina . in another preferred embodiment , the tissue properties are referred to physical dimension , optical absorption , optical scattering , optical attenuation coefficient , temperature , thermal expansion coefficient , speed of sound or heat capacity . specifically , the optical radiation is generated from a laser or non - laser source and is in the spectral range from about 0 . 2 μm to about 200 μm . more specifically , the optical radiation and optical pulses for imaging are delivered through the same fiber - optic delivery system . still specifically , the electromagnetic radiation is in radiofrequency , or in microwave spectral range , or simply a x - ray radiation , or a gamma radiation . in still another preferred embodiment , the treatment agent can be an optical radiation , an electromagnetic radiation , an ultrasonic radiation , an electrical current , heating , cooling , a drug or a surgical tool . in another embodiment of the present invention , there is provided a system of monitoring tissue properties in real time during treatment , comprising a system for administering a treatment agent to the tissue ; an optoacoustic imaging system for providing images ; an exogenous molecular probe for reflecting the treatment ; and a feed - back electronic system for adjusting parameters of the treatment agent . the following examples are given for the purpose of illustrating various embodiments of the invention and are not meant to limit the present invention in any fashion . liver samples simulating tumors were placed between two pieces of chicken breast muscle tissue . pulsed nd : yag laser radiation is used to obtain the image ( see fig1 ). a blood vessel in the chicken breast tissue is also visible . the data demonstrates capability of an optoacoustic technique to reconstruct images in tissue on the basis of the contract in optical and thermophysical properties between these two tissues . this allows monitoring of the tissue properties during treatment because application of a treatment agent ( heating , freezing , etc .) will induce changes in optoacoustic images . fig2 demonstrates an example of utility for laser optoacoustic imaging in monitoring of tissue optical properties during coagulation of a breast tumor by a continuous wave laser radiation . an optical fiber is used to deliver interstitially the laser radiation to the tumor . the fiber can be introduced into the breast tissue using a needle . the needle can be removed from the breast before the continuous wave laser irradiation . the continuous wave irradiation results in coagulation and changes in optical properties of the irradiated volume of the tissue . to obtain optoacoustic images , the large volume of normal tissue is irradiated by laser pulses with short duration . the pulsed laser radiation penetrates sufficiently deep to heat the volume of the breast tissue with the tumor . instant heating by short laser pulses produces acoustic ( stress ) wave with a profile resembling distribution of optoacoustic sources in the tissues . the laser - induced stress wave propagates to the normal tissue surface where it is detected by an acoustic transducer ( or transducer array ) with sufficient temporal resolution . the transducer signal resembling amplitude and temporal profile of the laser - induced stress wave is recorded via an interface to a computer for signal processing and image reconstruction . the optoacoustic images of the part of the breast with the tumor are displayed in real time . changes in optical properties due to coagulation result in changes in the optoacoustic images . dimensions of the coagulation zone are monitored during the continuous wave irradiation . the continuous wave irradiation is blocked , if the tumor is coagulated . this results in accurate coagulation of the tumor with minimal damage to normal breast tissues . similar procedures can be used for monitoring of physical properties during coagulation by other types of radiation ( microwave , radiofrequency , ultrasonic radiation ) as well as treatment by other treatment agents . an experimental scheme for optoacoustic monitoring of liver coagulation in real time is shown in fig3 . freshly excised liver was used in the experiments . slabs with the dimensions of 50 × 50 mm were cut from the liver . thickness of the slabs was varied from 20 to 30 mm . continuous wave nd : yag laser was used to induce coagulation in the liver samples . the continuous wave laser radiation was delivered through a quartz fiber with a specially designed diffusing tip with the length of 25 mm . the diffusing tip scattered radiation in 360 ° resulting in uniform distribution with cylindrical symmetry . the diffusing tip was introduced into the samples through a needle which was removed from the liver before continuous wave irradiation . such a scheme allowed coagulation only of a central part of the samples . a q - switched nd : yag laser ( pulse duration − 14 ns ) was employed for optoacoustic wave generation . the pulsed laser radiation was delivered from above with the use of a prism . energy of incident laser pulses was 15 mj . laser beam diameter was 6 mm providing incident laser fluence of 53 mj / cm 2 . the pulsed laser radiation with such parameters induced insignificant temperature rise less than 10 − 3 ° c . in the samples . a specially designed sensitive ( 2 . 5 v / mbar ) acoustic transducers was used to detect optoacoustic pressure waves in a wide spectral range . the samples were placed on the transducer . data acquisition was performed each 30 s during 1 s . repetition rate of the pulsed laser radiation was 10 hz and allowed averaging of 10 pressure wave profiles during this time . the pressure profiles were recorded by a digital scope and stored with a computer . pressure profiles recorded during coagulation of canine liver at the laser power of 7 w for 6 minutes are shown in fig4 . the first pulse in the profiles was caused by generation of pressure in the acoustic transducer and indicated position of its surface . the pressure profile represents distribution of absorbed pulsed laser energy in the sample . the second pulse was induced in blood accumulated around the diffusing tip after the liver perforation . this pulse indicated the diffusing tip position . the sharp edge at 14 μs represents the position of the irradiated air - liver interface . it is clearly seen that the profiles change during continuous wave irradiation that indicates changes in optical properties in the sample . the formation of a sharp edge occurs between 8 and 11 μs during continuous wave irradiation . the delay between the edge and the signal from the diffusing tip is equal to 4 . 5 μs at the irradiation time of 6 min . one can calculate the distance between the diffusing tip and the edge by multiplying 4 . 5 μs by speed of sound . the speed of sound measured in the normal and coagulated samples is 1 . 52 and 1 . 54 mm / μs , respectively . the calculated value of 6 . 9 mm is in good agreement with the coagulation zone diameter of 7 . 0 mm measured after the experiment . pressure profiles upon continuous wave irradiation with the laser power of 10 w were also recorded and are shown in fig5 . the upper profile is measured from a liver sample before the continuous wave irradiation . the lower profile is recorded after 1 . 5 min . of continuous wave irradiation . the changes in the profile indicates coagulation of the liver tissue near the diffusing tip . pulsed nd : yag laser radiation with the wavelength of 1064 nm was used to generate the thermoelastic pressure waves . no continuous wave laser radiation was applied to the samples . optoacoustic signals recorded from bovine liver samples before and after coagulation by microwave radiation for 1 min . ( see fig6 ). there is a noticeable difference between these two signals . the pressure amplitude detected from the coagulated tissue is higher than the one recorded from the normal tissue . in addition , the exponential slope for the coagulated tissue is sharper in comparison with the one for the normal one . this indicates that both the absorption and the attenuation coefficient of coagulated tissue is substantially higher than that of the normal one . table 1 contains values of optical properties of normal and coagulated liver calculated from experimentally measured pressure profiles . the absorption coefficient of the coagulated tissue is about 2 time higher than that of the normal one . the value of the scattering coefficient increases 2 . 4 times due to coagulation . the changes in the absorption and scattering coefficients result in 2 . 2 - fold increase of the attenuation coefficient . the increase in the attenuation coefficient yields stronger attenuation of nd : yag laser radiation in the coagulated zone . this means that this radiation cannot deeply penetrate into the coagulated tissue and that laser fluence in the coagulated zone is substantially lower . since generated thermoelastic pressure is proportional to the laser fluence , the pressure detected from the coagulated zone is lower than the pressure detected before coagulation from the same zone . this results in the optoacoustic contrast between normal and coagulated tissues . the optoacoustic signal amplitude was obtained as a function of temperature measured in aqueous solution of potassium chromate ( circles ), and the grüineisen coefficient theoretically calculated based on published thermomechanical properties of water ( solid curve ) ( see fig7 ). this experiment was performed to demonstrate capability of the laser optoacoustic monitoring technique to measure absolute temperature in aqueous medium . the water solution of potassium chromate was chosen for experiments because optical properties of this solution are not affected by the temperature variations . therefore , only the grüneisen coefficient , γ = βc s 2 / c p , was influenced by the temperature changes . thermomechanical properties of the solution , such as β ( t ), the thermoelastic expansion coefficient ; c s ( t ), the speed of sound ; and c p ( t ), the heat capacity at constant pressure , are the temperature dependent factors . laser irradiation wavelength was 355 nm . the temperature rise resulted from laser irradiation was insignificant compared with the base temperature of the solution . a piezoceramic transducer with a 40 mhz bandwidth was used for detection of pressure profiles . the exponential slope of the measured optoacoustic signals was defined by the optical absorption coefficient and was found to be independent on the temperature . good correlation between theoretical curve and experimental data is evident that temperature measurements in biological tissues may be performed at temperatures below the level of protein coagulation . at temperatures below 54 ° c . coagulation does not occur and therefore , the changes in the optoacoustic signal amplitude associated with changes in tissue optical properties may be excluded from the consideration . amplitude of optoacoustic pressure induced in freshly excised canine liver during hyperthermia and coagulation was measured and shown to be temperature dependent ( see fig8 ). the measurements were performed in real time during heating and cooling of the tissue . the tissue was heated by hot air for 30 min . to avoid desiccation , the tissue was covered by a plastic film . it is clearly seen that the amplitude is increasing linearly with the increase of the temperature from 22 to about 54 ° c . changes in optical properties induced by coagulation result in the sharp increase of the pressure amplitude at the temperature above 52 ° c . subsequent cooling leads to gradual decrease of pressure amplitude . amplitude of optoacoustic pressure induced in the canine liver during hyperthermia between 36 and 54 ° c . without coagulation was also measured ( see fig9 ). the data shows that the amplitude of optoacoustic pressure was also temperature dependent . the relative increase in pressure amplitude amounts approximately 1 . 5 % per 1 ° c . that results in about 9 % pressure amplitude increase if the liver is heated from 36 to 54 ° c . this temperature rise is normally applied for hyperthermia . these results indicate that by detecting the pressure wave amplitude with sufficient accuracy , one can monitor temperature rise in tissues . the accuracy of temperature measurements was about 3 % in this experiment and was limited by instability of laser energy ( 10 %). current laser systems with stabilized pulse energy available on the market have 1 %- stability , therefore the accuracy of temperature measurement of about 0 . 3 % can be achieved . the increase of pressure amplitude with the increase of temperature is noticeable and substantially greater than changes in acoustic properties ( speed of sound and density ) and chemical content of the tissue . this results in exceptional contrast of optoacoustic images compared with the contrast of ultrasound and mri images . optoacoustic pressure profiles from the normal and coagulated canine liver were recorded ( see fig1 ). pressure profiles recorded from coagulated liver differ dramatically from those recorded from the normal liver . due to an increase i n attenuation coefficient , the profiles recorded from the coagulated tissue were substantially sharper than the profiles recorded from the normal one . the optical attenuation coefficient of the coagulated and normal canine liver was shown to be temperature dependent ( see fig1 ). the attenuation coefficient of coagulated tissue at the temperature of about 70 ° c . was 4 times greater than the one of normal liver at this heating conditions . data analysis indicates that these changes are due to approximately 4 - fold increase of absorption and scattering coefficient of the liver induced by coagulation . these results explain formation of the sharp edge in the detected pressure profiles . the edge is caused by strong attenuation of laser radiation in the coagulated zone . the movement of the edge from the diffusing tip indicates an increase of coagulation zone dimensions during continuous wave laser irradiation . the amplitude of optoacoustic pressure was measured in real time from freshly excised canine myocardium during heating by hot air for 30 min . ( see fig1 ). the data shows that the amplitude is temperature dependent . to avoid desiccation , the tissue was covered by a thin plastic film . the pressure amplitude was shown to increase linearly with the increase of the temperature from 26 ° c . to about 55 ° c . changes in optical properties induced by coagulation resulted in a sharp increase of the pressure amplitude at the temperature above 55 ° c . optical attenuation coefficients of normal and coagulated myocardium calculated from pressure profiles equal 3 . 32 cm − 1 and 4 . 29 cm − 1 , respectively . these data demonstrate that real - time measurements of pressure amplitude and attenuation coefficient can be used for monitoring myocardium coagulation . a laser - induced pressure profile was measured with an optoacoustic transducer from a chicken breast muscle slab covered with skin ( solid curve ) and the same tissues where the top layer of the muscle slab was coagulated ( dashed curve ) ( see fig1 ). laser irradiation wavelength was 532 nm . lithium niobate front - surface optoacoustic transducer with a 100 mhz bandwidth was used for detection of pressure profiles . the optoacoustic profile was first measured in a fresh chicken breast muscle covered with skin . the measured optoacoustic signal shows two layers : skin and muscle tissues . the optical absorption of chicken breast is slightly higher than that of the chicken skin . this allows optoacoustic imaging of the two layers . acoustic diffraction that occurs in the prism of the optoacoustic transducer converts the intrinsic signal into its derivative . that is why originally positive pressure signals were measured as bipolar signals . the top layer of the breast muscle was then placed for 1 minute in water heated to 100 ° c ., and therefore , coagulated . the protein coagulation process dramatically increased tissue optical scattering . the increased tissue scattering resulted in enhanced amplitude of the measured optoacoustic signal . three layers of optoacoustically different tissue can be detected after coagulation . the optoacoustic signal amplitude sharply increased at the boundary between skin and coagulated chicken breast . the optoacoustic signal amplitude decreased at the boundary between coagulated and normal chicken breast . the thickness of the top layer of skin and the coagulated layer can be measured from the presented profiles with a 30 - μm accuracy . the result demonstrates capability of the optoacoustic imaging system to monitor tissue coagulation zone with the accuracy of tens of microns . the obtained results demonstrate that the optoacoustic technique can be successfully applied for monitoring of interstitial tissue temperature and coagulation in real time . the optoacoustic technique has such advantages compared with conventional imaging techniques as : ( 1 ) high contrast , ( 2 ) high sensitivity , ( 3 ) moderate cost , ( 4 ) minimal invasiveness , ( 5 ) capability of monitoring in real time . currently investigated optical imaging techniques based on contrast in optical properties can also provide high contrast . however , they are not capable of monitoring tissue optical properties at the depth of the order of centimeters . 4 . oraevsky , a . a ., et al ., in : “ advances in optical imaging and photon migration ”, vol . 21 , ed . by robert r . alfano , academic press , 1994 , pp . 161 - 165 . 5 . thomsen , s ., et al ., spie proc . 1994 , v . 2134 , pp . 106 - 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82 . 18 . esenaliev r . o ., et al ., spie proc . 1998 , v . 3254 , pp . 294 - 301 . any patents or publications mentioned in this specification are indicative of the levels of those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains . these patents and publications are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference . one skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the present invention is well adapted to carry out the objects and obtain the ends and advantages mentioned , as well as those inherent therein . the present examples along with the methods , procedures , treatments described herein are presently representative of preferred embodiments , are exemplary , and are not intended as limitations on the scope of the invention . changes therein and other uses will occur to those skilled in the art which are encompassed within the spirit of the invention as defined by the scope of the claims .