Advances in photoacoustic imaging aided by nano contrast agents: special focus on role of lymphatic system imaging for cancer theranostics

Table 1 Summary of in vivo photoacoustic human imaging introduced in this review [27]

Human imaging in vivo	Application field	Current clinical techniques	Current clinical deficiencies	Biomarkers of PAI	Advantages of PAI
Breast	Breast tumor	X-ray mammography Ultrasonography MRI	Ionizing radiation Low contrast Expensive	Hb HbO₂	High resolution Oxygen saturation Elastography
Skin	Skin disease Skin grafting Cosmetics	Dermoscopy RCM Ultrasound	Low penetration Low contrast	Hb HbO₂ Melanin	High resolution Full-thickness skin Oxygen saturation
Lymph	Sentinel lymph nodes Lymph dissection Lymphangiography	Biopsy Lymphography Lymphoscintigraphy	Repeat biopsy Radiation Complication	ICG	High resolution Vascular/lymphatic-colocalization
Bowel	Crohn’s disease Rectal cancer	Endoscopy Ultrasonography CTE MRE	Low penetration Radiation Low contrast	Hb HbO₂	Non-invasive Oxygen saturation Endorectal PAUS High diagnostic rate
Thyroid	Cancer Thyroid nodules	Fine needle aspiration Ultrasonography	Low contrast	Hb HbO₂	High contrast Oxygen saturation
Fat	Fatty tumors	F-FDG-PET/CT MRI	Radiation Expensive	Lipid	Non-invasive Rapid imaging
Ovarian	Cancer	Transvaginal ultrasound	Low contrast	Hb HbO₂	High contrast Oxygen saturation
Prostate	Cancer	Transrectal ultrasound	Low contrast	Hb HbO₂ ICG	High contrast Simultaneous TRPA/US Specific imaging
Collagen	Bone health DMD	MRI	Expensive	Collagen	High contrast Non-invasive Rapid imaging
Brain	Brain function	fNIRS fMRI	Low-spatial-resolution Expensive	Hb HbO₂	High resolution Functional imaging Rapid imaging

DMD Duchenne muscular dystrophy, RCM reflectance confocal microscopy, CTE computed tomography enterography, F-FDG-PET/CT fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography, fNIRS functional near-infrared spectroscopy, fMRI functional magnetic resonance imaging, TRPA/US transrectal photoacoustic and ultrasound

ISSN: 1477-3155