Invasive medical procedures, such as surgery requiring local anesthesia, often involve the risk of nerve injury. During operation, surgeons may accidentally cut, stretch, or compress nerves, especially when mistaking them for some other tissue. This can lead to long-lasting symptoms in the patient, including sensory and motor problems. Similarly, patients receiving nerve blockades or other types of anesthesia can suffer from nerve damage if the needle is not placed at the correct distance from the targeted peripheral nerve.
In this regard, there is a promising alternative approach known as multispectralimaging. A noninvasive technique, photoacoustic imaging combines light and sound waves to create detailed images of tissues and structures in the body. Essentially, the target region is first illuminated with pulsed light, causing it to heat up slightly. This, in turn, causes the tissues to expand, sending out ultrasonic waves that can be picked up by an ultrasound detector.
One of the main objectives of their study was to determine the ideal wavelengths for identifying nerve tissue in photoacoustic images. The researchers hypothesized that the wavelengths from 1630–1850 nm, which reside within the NIR-III optical window, would be the optimal range for nerve visualization, since the lipids found in the myelin sheath of neurons have a characteristic absorption peak in this range.
Additionally, the researchers conducted photoacoustic measurements on the peripheral nerves of live swine using a custom imaging setup. These experiments further confirmed the hypothesis that the peak in the NIR-III band can be effectively leveraged to differentiate lipid-rich nerve tissue from other types of tissues and materials containing water or that are lipid-deficient.
Overall, these findings could motivate scientists to further explore the potential of photoacoustic imaging. Moreover, the characterization of the optical absorbance profile of nerve tissue could help improve nerve detection and segmentation techniques when using other optical imaging modalities.
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