We develop a system for three-dimensional whole-body optoacoustic tomography of small animals for applications in preclinical research. The tomographic images are obtained while the objects of study ͑phantoms or mice͒ are rotated within a sphere outlined by a concave arc-shaped array of 64 piezocomposite transducers. Two pulsed lasers operating in the near-IR spectral range ͑755 and 1064 nm͒ with an average pulsed energy of about 100 mJ, a repetition rate of 10 Hz, and a pulse duration of 15 to 75 ns are used as optical illumination sources. During the scan, the mouse is illuminated orthogonally to the array with two wide beams of light from a bifurcated fiber bundle. The system is capable of generating images of individual organs and blood vessels through the entire body of a mouse with spatial resolution of ϳ0.5 mm.
A different system for whole-body optoacoustic imaging of small animals REF combines a dedicated imaging set-up with a modified reconstruction process to enlarge the FOV.
Whole-body three-dimensional optoacoustic tomography system for small animals
Journal of biomedical optics
Journal of biomedical optics
Medicine