2023-11-30 カリフォルニア工科大学(Caltech)
◆これにより、血管の構造や酸素飽和度だけでなく、血流の速さや方向も可視化できるようになりました。この技術は、ヘモグロビンが吸収するレーザー光を使用し、その振動から血管の情報を得るもので、これにより血流のベクトルフローも計測できます。研究者はこれまでの予想を超える成果で、血液の酸素量や代謝活動も定量化できるとしています。
<関連情報>
- https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/seeing-deep-blood-flow-with-sound-and-laser-light
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-023-01148-5
深部血流動態イメージングのための光音響ベクトルトモグラフィ Photoacoustic vector tomography for deep haemodynamic imaging
Yang Zhang,Joshua Olick-Gibson,Anjul Khadria & Lihong V. Wang
Nature Biomedical Engineering Published:30 November 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-023-01148-5
Abstract
Imaging deep haemodynamics non-invasively remains a quest. Although optical imaging techniques can be used to measure blood flow, they are generally limited to imaging within ∼1 mm below the skin’s surface. Here we show that such optical diffusion limit can be broken through by leveraging the spatial heterogeneity of blood and its photoacoustic contrast. Specifically, successive single-shot wide-field photoacoustic images of blood vessels can be used to visualize the frame-to-frame propagation of blood and to estimate blood flow speed and direction pixel-wise. The method, which we named photoacoustic vector tomography (PAVT), allows for the quantification of haemodynamics in veins more than 5 mm deep, as we show for regions in the hands and arms of healthy volunteers. PAVT may offer advantages for the diagnosis and monitoring of vascular diseases and for the mapping of the function of the circulatory system.
