Quantitative Photoacoustic Image Reconstruction using Fluence Dependent Chromophores

In biomedical photoacoustic imaging the images are proportional to the absorbed optical energy density, and not the optical absorption, which makes it difficult to obtain a quantitatively accurate image showing the concentration of a particular absorbing chromophore from photoacoustic measurements alone. Here it is shown that the spatially varying concentration of a chromophore whose absorption becomes zero above a threshold light fluence can be estimated from photoacoustic images obtained at increasing illumination strengths. This technique provides an alternative to model-based multiwavelength approaches to quantitative photoacoustic imaging, and a new approach to photoacoustic molecular and functional imaging.