Noninvasively measuring oxygen saturation of human finger-joint vessels by multi-transducer functional photoacoustic tomography

Imaging small blood vessels and measuring their functional information in finger joint are still challenges for clinical imaging modalities. In this study, we developed a multi-transducer functional photoacoustic tomography (PAT) system and successfully imaged human finger-joint vessels from similar to 1 mm to < 0.2 mm in diameter. In addition, the oxygen saturation (SO2) values of these vessels were also measured. Our results demonstrate that PAT can provide both anatomical and functional information of individual finger-joint vessels with different sizes, which might help the study of finger-joint diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).Doctoral Fund of the Ministry of Education of China [20130001110035]; National Key Instrumentation Development Project [2011YQ030114, 2013YQ030651]; National Science Foundation of China [30831160516]SCI(E)EIARTICLEchli@pku.edu.cn62