Gastroenterology in MotionMultispectral Optoacoustic Tomography in Crohn’s Disease: Noninvasive Imaging of Disease Activity
Section snippets
Description of the Technology
Because optoacoustic imaging is capable of visualizing the distribution of endogenous absorbers such as melanin, hemoglobin, and lipids and its usefulness has been very recently shown in a pilot clinical study in melanoma patients,3 we hypothesized that this technique might be of particular relevance for noninvasive detection of inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract in CD. The clinical trial was registered (ClinicalTrails.gov Identifier: NCT02622139) and ethical board approval was
Video Description
The video starts with an introduction to the clinical background and the unmet clinical need for the evaluation of disease activity in CD. Subsequently, the fundamental principles of the photoacoustic effect, which describes the conversion of electromagnetic radiation into acoustic waves, are explained. When tissue is irradiated with short laser pulses, the laser light is absorbed and partly converted into heat resulting in an increase in temperature and pressure. The tissue then relaxes via
Take Home Message
This video clearly demonstrates that ultrasound-guided multispectral optoacoustic tomography can be used for the noninvasive and rapid evaluation of total, oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin content in the intestinal wall of healthy individuals and patients with CD. To our knowledge, this is the first report about the use of optoacoustic imaging for the diagnosis of human inflammatory diseases. As multispectral optoacoustic tomography signals of individual patients could be acquired within
Acknowledgments
MJW gratefully acknowledges funding of the Erlangen Graduate School in Advanced Optical Technologies (SAOT) by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the framework of the German excellence initiative and funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the Klinische Forschergruppe 257 (KFO 257). FK gratefully acknowledges funding by the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF) of the University Medical Center of Erlangen. MFN gratefully acknowledges funding by the Emerging
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Cited by (0)
This article has an accompanying continuing medical education activity, also eligible for MOC credit, on page e18. Learning Objective: Upon completion of this examination, successful learners will be able to evaluate the diagnostic potential of multispectral optoacoustic tomography for the evaluation of disease activity in patients with Crohn's disease.
Conflicts of interest The authors disclose the following: S.M. and J.C. are employees of iThera Medical. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest.