Optoacoustic tomography (OAT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provide highly complementary capabilities for anatomical and functional imaging of living organisms. Herein, we investigate on the feasibility of combining both modalities to render concurrent images. This was achieved by introducing a specifically‐designed copper‐shielded spherical ultrasound array into a preclinical MRI scanner. Phantom experiments revealed that the OAT probe caused minimal distortion in the MRI images, while synchronization of the laser and the MRI pulse sequence enabled defining artifact‐free acquisition windows for OAT. Good dynamic OAT contrast from superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, a commonly used agent for MRI contrast enhancement, was also observed. The hybrid OAT‐MRI system thus provides an excellent platform for cross‐validating functional readings of both modalities. Overall, this initial study serves to establish the technical feasibility of developing a hybrid OAT‐MRI system for biomedical research.

中文翻译：

---

并发磁共振成像和体声光层析成像的发展：幻像可行性研究

光声层析成像（OAT）和磁共振成像（MRI）为活生物体的解剖学和功能成像提供了高度互补的功能。在这里，我们研究结合两种方式来渲染并发图像的可行性。这是通过在临床前MRI扫描仪中引入专门设计的铜屏蔽球形超声阵列实现的。幻影实验表明，OAT探针在MRI图像中引起的畸变最小，而激光和MRI脉冲序列的同步可以定义OAT的无伪像采集窗口。还观察到超顺磁性氧化铁纳米粒子（一种通常用于MRI增强造影剂）的动态OAT良好的对比度。因此，混合OAT-MRI系统为交叉验证两种模式的功能读数提供了一个极好的平台。总体而言，这项初步研究旨在确定开发用于生物医学研究的混合OAT-MRI系统的技术可行性。