In photo-acoustic tomography, an expanded pulsed laser
beam diffuses into biological tissue and generates a small but rapid
temperature rise, which causes the emission of ultrasonic waves as a
result of thermoelastic expansion. The short-wavelength ultrasonic waves
are then detected to form high-resolution tomographic images.
Selected publications:
L. V. Wang, "Prospects of photoacoustic tomography," Medical Physics 35 (12), 5758–5767 (Dec. 2008).[PDF]
K. H. Song, E. W. Stein, J. A. Margenthaler, and L. V. Wang, "Noninvasive photoacoustic identification of sentinel lymph nodes containing methylene blue in vivo in a rat model," Journal of Biomedical Optics 13, 054033-(1–6) (Sep. 2008).[PDF]
K. Maslov, H. F. Zhang, S. Hu, and L. V. Wang, "Optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy for in vivo imaging of single capillaries," Optics Letters 33, 929–931 (Apr. 2008). [PDF]
H. F. Zhang, K. Maslov, and L. V. Wang, "In vivo imaging of subcutaneous structures using functional photoacoustic microscopy," Nature Protocols 2(4), 797–804 (Apr. 2007).[PDF]
H. F. Zhang, K. Maslov, G. Stoica, and L.-H. Wang, "Functional
photoacoustic microscopy for high-resolution and noninvasive in vivo imaging," Nature Biotechnology
24, 848–851 (Jul. 2006).[PDF]
M. Xu and L.-H. Wang, "Biomedical photoacoustics," Review of Scientific Instruments 77 (4),
041101 (Apr. 2006).[PDF]
M. Xu and L.-H. Wang, "Universal
back-projection algorithm for photoacoustic-computed tomography,"
Physical Review E 71 (1): 016706 (Part 2, Jan. 2005).[PDF]
Y. Xu, L.-H. Wang, G. Ambartsoumian and
P. Kuchment, "Reconstructions in limited-view thermoacoustic
tomography," Medical Physics 31 (4), 724–733
(Apr. 2004).[PDF]
Y. Xu and L.-H. Wang, "Time reversal
and its application to tomography with diffracting sources," Physical
Review Letters 92 (3), 033902 (Jan. 23, 2004).[PDF]
X. Wang, Y. Pang, G. Ku, X. Xie, G. Stoica,
and L.-H. Wang, "Non-invasive laser-induced photoacoustic tomography
for structural and functional imaging of the brain in vivo," Nature
Biotechnology 21 (7), 803-806 (July 2003). [PDF]
Supp. 1. [PDF] Supp. 2. [PDF]
M. Xu and L.-H. Wang, "Analytic
explanation of spatial resolution related to bandwidth and detector
aperture size in thermoacoustic or photoacoustic reconstruction,"
Physical Review E 67 (5), 056605, 1-15 (May 2003). [PDF]