Photoacoustic microscopy for ovarian tissue characterization

In this paper, we present the construction of an optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) system and studies done on the characterization of human ovarian tissue with malignant and benign features ex vivo. PAM images of the ovaries showed more detailed blood vessel distributions with much higher resolution compared with conventional photoacoustic images obtained with array transducers. In all, 29 PAM images (20 from normal ovaries and 9 from malignant ovaries) were studied. Eight different features were extracted quantitatively from the PAM images, and a generalized linear model (GLM) was used to classify the ovaries as normal or malignant. By using the GLM, a specificity of 100% and a sensitivity of 100% were obtained for the training set. These preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of our PAM system in mapping microvasculature networks, as well as characterizing the ovarian tissue, and could be extremely valuable in assisting surgeons for in vivo evaluation of ovarian tissue.