Carbon Nanoparticles as a Multimodal Thermoacoustic and Photoacoustic Contrast Agent

We demonstrated the potential of carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) as exogenous contrast agents for both thermoacoustic (TA) tomography (TAT) and photoacoustic (PA) tomography (PAT). In comparison to deionized water, the CNPs provided a four times stronger signal in TAT at 3 GHz. In comparison to blood, The CNPs provided a much stronger signal in PAT over a broad wavelength range of 450-850 nm. Specifically, the maximum signal enhancement in PAT was 9.4 times stronger in the near-infrared window of 635-670 nm. In vivo blood-vessel PA imaging was performed non-invasively on a mouse femoral area. The images, captured after the tail vein injection of CNPs, show a gradual enhancement of the optical absorption in the vessels by up to 230%. The results indicate that CNPs can be potentially used as contrast agents for TAT and PAT to monitor the intravascular or extravascular pathways in clinical applications.