Photoacoustic tomography of rabbit airway imaging

Background: Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) is an evolving technique that is capable of obtaining real-time, high-resolution images of tissues. The purpose of this research was to evaluate morphological and functional information of the rabbit airway using PAT. Methods: PAT experiments were performed with nine New Zealand white rabbits. Here we measured the cross-sectional tracheal wall thickness and cross-sectional area of airway in vivo and in vitro. PAT airway images and the corresponding histological findings were compared. Results: PAT images showed the continuous variation of tracheal lumen size at different phases of the respiratory cycle. There were no significant differences between tracheal wall thickness by PAT imaging in vivo and the corresponding pathological tissue (p>0.05). No significant differences were found between cross-sectional area of airway wall in vivo and its corresponding fresh specimens by PAT imaging (p<0.05), while differences were found between cross-sectional area of airway wall in vivo and its corresponding formalin-fixed specimen by PAT imaging (p<0.01).