Although tissue water monitoring is necessary for diagnostics of diseases and cosmetic applications, at present there is no technique for accurate, noninvasive, high-resolution measurement of water content in skin and other tissues. We proposed optoacoustic monitoring of water in tissues and performed in vitro and in vivo studies using high-resolution optoacoustic, ultrasound, and optical scattering systems. The NIR spectral range was used to generate optoacoustic signals from epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous tissues. Our results suggest that the optoacoustic technique can be used for accurate water monitoring by providing simultaneously both structural and molecular information from tissues with high resolution.
|