Photoacoustic Imaging: A Novel Tool for Detecting Carotid Artery Thrombosis in Mice

Thrombosis is a main cause of acute cardiovascular events, and detecting thrombi in small arteries via noninvasive imaging remains challenging. In this study, we employed a novel imaging method, photoacoustic imaging (PAI), to study thrombosis in a mouse model of ferric chloride (FeCl3)-induced arterial thrombosis and compared the ability of this method to detect thrombosis with that of a conventional imaging method, namely, ultrasound. The mice (n = 20) were divided equally into the following 4 groups: (1) a normal group, and (2) 3 experimental groups, in which the left common carotid artery was treated with 20% FeCl3 for 1, 3, or 5 min, respectively. After 24 h, PAI detected thrombi of different sizes and generated images, enabling us to assess the changes in structure. The results of this study suggest that PAI is a useful, noninvasive visualization tool for investigating the mechanism underlying thrombosis development and is suitable for imaging arterial thrombosis in mouse carotid arteries.