In vivo cell characteristic extraction and identification by photoacoustic flow cytography.

We present a photoacoustic flow cytography with fast cross-sectional (B-scan) imaging to precisely identify specific cells in vivo. The B-scan imaging speed of the system is up to 200 frame/s with a lateral resolution of 1.5 μm, which allows to dynamically image the flowing cells within the microvascular. The shape, size and photoacoustic intensity of the target cells are extracted from streaming images and integrated into a standard pattern to distinguish cell types. Circulating red blood cells and melanoma cells in blood vessels are simultaneously identified on melanoma-bearing mouse model. The results demonstrate that in vivo photoacoustic flow cytography can provide cells characteristics analysis and cell type's visual identification, which will be applied for noninvasively monitoring circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and analyzing hematologic diseases.