Handheld photoacoustic probe to detect both melanoma depth and volume at high speed in vivo.

We applied a linear-array-based photoacoustic probe to detect melanin-containing melanoma tumor depth and volume in nude mice in vivo. This system can image melanomas at five frames per second (fps), which is much faster than our previous handheld single transducer system (0.1 fps). We first theoretically show that, in addition to the higher frame rate, almost the entire boundary of the melanoma can be detected by the linear-array-based probe, while only the horizontal boundary could be detected by the previous system. Then we demonstrate the ability of this linear-array-based system in measuring both the depth and volume of melanoma through phantom, ex vivo, and in vivo experiments. The volume detection ability also enables us to accurately calculate the rate of growth of the tumor, which is an important parameter in quantifying the tumor activity. Our results show that this system can be used for clinical melanoma diagnosis and treatment in humans at the bedside. Linear-array-based PA images of melanoma acquired in vivo on day 3 (a) and day 6 (b).