Photoacoustic thermography of tissue.

Photoacoustic (PA) techniques can measure temperature in biological tissues because PA signal amplitude is sensitive to tissue temperature. So far, temperature-measuring PA techniques have focused on sensing of temperature changes at a single position. In this work, we photoacoustically measured spatial distribution of temperature in deep tissue. By monitoring the temperature at a single position using a thermocouple, the relationship between the PA signal amplitude and the actual temperature was determined. The relationship was then used to translate a PA image into a temperature map. This study showed that it is possible to calibrate the system for the temperature range of hyperthermia using single-point measurements over a smaller temperature range. Our experimental results showed a precision of -0.8±0.4°C (mean±standard error) in temperature measurement, and a spatial resolution as fine as 1.0 mm. PA techniques can be potentially applied to monitor temperature distribution deep in tissue during hyperthermia treatment of cancer.