Abstract
We present for the first time in vivo imaging of rat brain using microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography (TAT). The in vivo imaging of rat brain was realized through an unconventional delivery of microwave energy from the front of rat brain (while the transducer was scanned along coronal plane of the animal brain), which maximized the microwave penetration into the brain. In addition, we found that the imaging contrast was highly dependent on the direction of the electric field polarization (EFP) and that more tissue structures/compositions could be revealed when both [Formula: see text]- and [Formula: see text]-EFPs were used for TAT. The in vivo TAT images of rat brain obtained were compared with the 3.0 T MRI images and histological photographs, and numerous important brain anatomical structures were identified. An example of our TAT approach for imaging a foreign object embedded in a rat brain was also demonstrated. This study suggests that TAT has a great potential to be used in neuroscience studies and in noninvasive imaging of brain disorders.
Highlights
Some existing imaging methods used to detect and diagnose brain diseases, like CT and MRI, are time-consuming, expensive and bulky
While an initial e®ort has been made to image brain tissue using thermoacoustic tomography (TAT), it has been limited to ex vivo tissue[12] or the boundary information of in vivo rat brain.[13,14]
We describe thermoacoustic (TA) methods that allow us to obtain in vivo structural images of rat brain for therst time
Summary
Some existing imaging methods used to detect and diagnose brain diseases, like CT and MRI, are time-consuming, expensive and bulky. They cannot be used in remote areas, or for monitoring brain injury over a long period of time.[1] Microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography (TAT), as a compact and mobile technology,[2,3] can be applied to monitor the patient continuously in real time,[4] either at the bedside or in the ambulance. In order to provide su±cient resolution for neuroscience studies, the 7.0 T or higher MRI needs to be used in small animals such as mice and rats. We chose rat brain as our study model as it is a widely used animal model for brain studies such as craniocerebral injury, Parkinson and stroke.[15,16,17]
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