Simultaneous photoacoustic and ultrasound (PAUS) imaging has attracted increasing attention in biomedical research to probe the optical and mechanical properties of tissue. However, the resolution for majority of the existing PAUS systems is on the order of 1 mm as the majority are designed for clinical use with low-frequency US detection. Here we developed a concurrent PAUS microscopy that consists of optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) and high-frequency US pulse-echo imaging. This dual-modality system utilizes a novel coaxial dual-element ultrasonic transducer (DE-UST) and provides anatomical and functional information with complementary contrast mechanisms, achieving a spatial resolution of 7 μm for PA imaging and 106 μm for US imaging. We performed phantom studies to validate the system’s performance. The vasculature of a mouse’s hind paw was imaged to demonstrate the potential of this hybrid system for biomedical applications.

中文翻译：

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同轴双元件超声探头同时进行光声和超声显微镜检查

同时，光声和超声（PAUS）成像在生物医学研究中越来越受关注，以探测组织的光学和机械特性。但是，大多数现有PAUS系统的分辨率约为1毫米，因为大多数设计用于低频US检测的临床应用。在这里，我们开发了同时进行的PAUS显微镜，它由光学分辨率光声显微镜（OR-PAM）和高频US脉冲回波成像组成。该双模态系统利用新型同轴双元件超声换能器（DE-UST），并通过互补的对比机制提供解剖和功能信息，PA成像的空间分辨率为7μm，US成像的空间分辨率为106μm。我们进行了幻像研究以验证系统的性能。