5.5.2 Applications of photoacoustic imaging in the...
Photoacoustic imaging is widely used in the diagnosis of dermatosis，including melanoma，nevus flammeus，hemangioma，basal cell carcinoma，squamous cell carcinoma，scleroderma，and others.Due to the high sensitivity of photoacoustic to blood vessels，photoacoustic imaging of blood vessel structure and function in skin and vascular proliferation has become popular in dermatological imaging diagnosis in recent years.One of the representative applications is to achieve the photoacoustic imaging of blood vessel structure and function in palm.Viator et al.performed photoacoustic imaging of nevus flammeus and the obtained images clearly showed the depth of blood vessels and the thickness of skin lesions.Some researchers have successfully diagnosed basal cell carcinoma through the combination of photoacoustic imaging and optical coherence tomography，and obtained its vascular pattern and collagen matrix.Since the vascular pattern and collagen matrix are two key parameters for the classification of basal cell carcinoma，early diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma can be expected.
Another important application of photoacoustic imaging in the diagnosis of dermatosis is the diagnosis and evaluation of melanin.Due to its strong light absorption，melanin presents extremely high contrast with other substances in tissues.Melanoma is a typical pigmentrelated and the most malignant skin tumor，which is prone to metastasis.It is demonstrated that photoacoustic imaging can be utilized to diagnose melanoma and monitor its growth and metastasis by detecting endogenous melanin in tumors.At present，the applications of photoacoustic imaging in melanoma diagnosis are mainly as follows.(https://www.daowen.com)