Detection of cocaine induced rat brain activation by photoacoustic tomography.

Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) was used to detect the progressive changes on the cerebral cortex of Sprague-Dawley rats after the administration of cocaine hydrochloride. Different concentrations (0, 2.5, and 5.0 mg per kg body) of cocaine hydrochloride in saline solution were injected into Sprague-Dawley rats through tail veins. Cerebral cortex images of the animals were continuously acquired by PAT. For continuous observation, PAT system used multi-transducers to reduce the scanning time and maintain a good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The obtained photoacoustic images were compared with each other and confirmed that changes in blood volume were induced by cocaine hydrochloride injection. The results demonstrate that PAT may be used to detect the effects of drug abuse-induced brain activation.