Abstract

Opto-acoustic tomography is proposed and evaluated as a method to visualize and quantify penetration of drugs and optical contrast agents in skin and nails. Opto-acoustic front surface transducer operating in backward mode was developed and tested. Experimental results demonstrated that monitoring of drug diffusion in tissue is feasible with spatial resolution limited only by duration of laser pulses. Axial in-depth resolution of 18 pm was achieved with 12-ns long laser pulses. Penetration of skin moisturizing lotions in skin and other solutions was visualized with the opto-acoustic tomography.

© 2000 Optical Society of America