Noninvasive monitoring of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic rehabilitation with laser-induced photoacoustic imaging

A photoacoustic imaging system was used for noninvasive monitoring of traumatic mouse brain in vivo with high-quality reconstructed images. Traumatic lesions accompanying with hemorrhage in the mouse cortical surface were accurately mapped, and foreign bodies of two small copper wires inserted in the mouse brain were also detected. Furthermore, the time course of morphological changes of cerebral blood during rehabilitation process of a mouse brain with traumatic brain injury was obtained using a series of photoacoustic images. Experimental results demonstrate that photoacoustic technique holds the potential for clinical applications in brain trauma and cerebrovascular disease detection.