A multichannel system for real-time optoacoustics and its suitability for molecular imaging

In optoacoustics, the good resolution of ultrasound is combined with the excellent contrast of optical methods. We developed a system capable of acquiring signals of up to 128 channels simultaneously for real-time optoacoustic imaging. In molecular imaging tasks, an imaging system has to be able to detect entities which bind to defined biological markers. Since gold nanoparticles are particularly suited as optoacoustic contrast agent due to their strong plasmon resonance, we evaluated the dependence of nanoparticle type and concentration on their detectability with the newest generation of DiPhAS (Digital Phased Array System, Fraunhofer IBMT) using tissue-mimicking phantomz.