Optoacoustic imaging (OAI) offers versatile and highly specific contrast from a variety of tissue-intrinsic and extrinsic molecules, including hemoglobin, melanin, lipids, collagen, fluorophores and nanoparticles. This allows for anatomical, functional and molecular imaging within a single modality.
Many diseases come with a change in tissue properties that can be tracked with OAI. Tissue and disease biomarkers can be assessed in real time, which has allowed clinical trials to demonstrate potential point-of-care value in several disease areas. Portable and cost-effective, OAI could soon provide clinicians with new avenues for diagnosis and assessment of therapeutic efficacy.