Abstract
Currently, several non-invasive modalities, including MRI and PET, are being investigated to identify early intestinal inflammation, longitudinally monitor disease status, or detect dysplastic changes in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Here, we assess the applicability and utility of multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) in evaluating the presence and severity of colitis. Mice with bacterial colitis demonstrated a temporally associated increase in mesenteric and colonic vascularity with an increase in mean signal intensity of oxygenated hemoglobin (p=0.004) by MSOT two days after inoculation. These findings were significantly more prominent 7 days after inoculation, with increased mean signal intensity of oxygenated hemoglobin (p=0.0002) and the development of punctate vascular lesions on the colonic surface, which corresponded to changes observed on colonoscopy as well as histology. With improvements in depth of tissue penetration, MSOT may hold potential as a sensitive, accurate, non-invasive imaging tool in evaluation of patients with IBD.
- Animal Imaging
- Gastrointestinal
- Molecular Imaging
- colitis
- inflammatory bowel disease
- multispectral optoacoustic tomography
- oxygenated hemoglobin
- Copyright © 2016 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Inc.