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Updated: Mar 17, 2026

Three-dimensional Optical-resolution Photoacoustic Microscopy
Published on: May 3, 2011
Simultaneous assessment of red blood cell aggregation and oxygen saturation under pulsatile flow using high-frequency
Tae-Hoon Bok1, Eno Hysi1, Michael C Kolios1
1Department of Physics, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3 Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology (iBEST), a partnership between Ryerson University and St. Michael's Hospital, 209 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 1T8, Canada.
Abstract:
We investigate the feasibility of photoacoustic (PA) imaging for assessing the correlation between red blood cell (RBC) aggregation and the oxygen saturation (sO2) in a simulated pulsatile blood flow system. For the 750 and 850 nm illuminations, the PA amplitude (PAA) increased and decreased as the mean blood flow velocity decreased and increased, respectively, at all beat rates (60, 120 and 180 bpm). The sO2 also cyclically varied, in phase with the PAA for all beat rates. However, the linear correlation between the sO2 and the PAA at 850 nm was stronger than that at 750 nm. These results suggest that the sO2 can be correlated with RBC aggregation induced by decreased mean shear rate in pulsatile flow, and that the correlation is dependent on the optical wavelength. The hemodynamic properties of blood flow assessed by PA imaging may be used to provide a new biomarker for simultaneous monitoring blood viscosity related to RBC aggregation, oxygen delivery related to the sO2 and their clinical correlation.
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