Li Daiwei, Humayun Lucas, Vienneau Emelina, Vu Tri, Yao Junjie
Photoacoustic Imaging Lab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
JID Innov. 2021 Jun 25;1(3):100039. doi: 10.1016/j.xjidi.2021.100039. eCollection 2021 Sep.
Skin diseases are the most common human diseases and manifest in distinct structural and functional changes to skin tissue components such as basal cells, vasculature, and pigmentation. Although biopsy is the standard practice for skin disease diagnosis, it is not sufficient to provide in vivo status of the skin and highly depends on the timing of diagnosis. Noninvasive imaging technologies that can provide structural and functional tissue information in real time would be invaluable for skin disease diagnosis and treatment evaluation. Among the modern medical imaging technologies, photoacoustic (PA) tomography (PAT) shows great promise as an emerging optical imaging modality with high spatial resolution, high imaging speed, deep penetration depth, rich contrast, and inherent sensitivity to functional and molecular information. Over the last decade, PAT has undergone an explosion in technical development and biomedical applications. Particularly, PAT has attracted increasing attention in skin disease diagnosis, providing structural, functional, metabolic, molecular, and histological information. In this concise review, we introduce the principles and imaging capability of various PA skin imaging technologies. We highlight the representative applications in the past decade with a focus on imaging skin vasculature and melanoma. We also envision the critical technical developments necessary to further accelerate the translation of PAT technologies to fundamental skin research and clinical impacts.
皮肤疾病是人类最常见的疾病，表现为皮肤组织成分（如基底细胞、脉管系统和色素沉着）明显的结构和功能变化。尽管活检是皮肤疾病诊断的标准做法，但它不足以提供皮肤的体内状态，且高度依赖诊断时机。能够实时提供组织结构和功能信息的非侵入性成像技术对于皮肤疾病的诊断和治疗评估将非常宝贵。在现代医学成像技术中，光声断层扫描（PAT）作为一种新兴的光学成像方式，具有高空间分辨率、高成像速度、深穿透深度、丰富的对比度以及对功能和分子信息的固有敏感性，显示出巨大的潜力。在过去十年中，PAT在技术发展和生物医学应用方面取得了飞速发展。特别是，PAT在皮肤疾病诊断中受到越来越多的关注，可提供结构、功能、代谢、分子和组织学信息。在这篇简要综述中，我们介绍了各种光声皮肤成像技术的原理和成像能力。我们重点介绍了过去十年中的代表性应用，重点是皮肤脉管系统成像和黑色素瘤成像。我们还展望了进一步加速PAT技术向基础皮肤研究和临床应用转化所需的关键技术发展。
