TY - JOUR
T1 - Photoacoustic imaging of the human placental vasculature
AU - Maneas, Efthymios
AU - Aughwane, Rosalind
AU - Huynh, Nam
AU - Xia, Wenfeng
AU - Ansari, Rehman
AU - Kuniyil Ajith Singh, Mithun
AU - Hutchinson, J Ciaran
AU - Sebire, Neil J
AU - Arthurs, Owen J
AU - Deprest, Jan
AU - Ourselin, Sebastien
AU - Beard, Paul C
AU - Melbourne, Andrew
AU - Vercauteren, Tom
AU - David, Anna L
AU - Desjardins, Adrien E
N1 - This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/11/25
Y1 - 2019/11/25
N2 - Minimally invasive fetal interventions require accurate imaging from inside the uterine cavity. Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), a condition considered in this study, occurs from abnormal vascular anastomoses in the placenta that allow blood to flow unevenly between the fetuses. Currently, TTTS is treated fetoscopically by identifying the anastomosing vessels, and then performing laser photocoagulation. However, white light fetoscopy provides limited visibility of placental vasculature, which can lead to missed anastomoses or incomplete photocoagulation. Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is an alternative imaging method that provides contrast for hemoglobin, and in this study, two PA systems were used to visualize chorionic (fetal) superficial and subsurface vasculature in human placentas. The first system comprised an optical parametric oscillator for PA excitation and a 2D Fabry-Pérot cavity ultrasound sensor; the second, light emitting diode arrays and a 1D clinical linear-array ultrasound imaging probe. Volumetric photoacoustic images were acquired from ex vivo normal term and TTTS-treated placentas. It was shown that superficial and subsurface branching blood vessels could be visualized to depths of approximately 7 mm, and that ablated tissue yielded negative image contrast. This study demonstrated the strong potential of PA imaging to guide minimally invasive fetal therapies.
AB - Minimally invasive fetal interventions require accurate imaging from inside the uterine cavity. Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), a condition considered in this study, occurs from abnormal vascular anastomoses in the placenta that allow blood to flow unevenly between the fetuses. Currently, TTTS is treated fetoscopically by identifying the anastomosing vessels, and then performing laser photocoagulation. However, white light fetoscopy provides limited visibility of placental vasculature, which can lead to missed anastomoses or incomplete photocoagulation. Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is an alternative imaging method that provides contrast for hemoglobin, and in this study, two PA systems were used to visualize chorionic (fetal) superficial and subsurface vasculature in human placentas. The first system comprised an optical parametric oscillator for PA excitation and a 2D Fabry-Pérot cavity ultrasound sensor; the second, light emitting diode arrays and a 1D clinical linear-array ultrasound imaging probe. Volumetric photoacoustic images were acquired from ex vivo normal term and TTTS-treated placentas. It was shown that superficial and subsurface branching blood vessels could be visualized to depths of approximately 7 mm, and that ablated tissue yielded negative image contrast. This study demonstrated the strong potential of PA imaging to guide minimally invasive fetal therapies.
KW - fetal therapy
KW - human placenta imaging
KW - photoacoustic imaging
KW - twin-to-twin-transfusion syndrome
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076376168&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/jbio.201900167
DO - 10.1002/jbio.201900167
M3 - Article
C2 - 31661594
SN - 1864-063X
JO - Journal of biophotonics
JF - Journal of biophotonics
M1 - e201900167
ER -