Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) leads to chronic vascular occlusion and results in end organ damage in critically perfused limbs. There are currently no clinical methods available to determine the muscular damage induced by chronic mal-perfusion. This monocentric prospective cross-sectional study investigated n = 193 adults, healthy to severe PAD, in order to quantify the degree of calf muscle degeneration caused by PAD using a non-invasive hybrid ultrasound and single wavelength optoacoustic imaging (US/SWL-OAI) approach. While US provides morphologic information, SWL-OAI visualizes the absorption of pulsed laser light and the resulting sound waves from molecules undergoing thermoelastic expansion. US/SWL-OAI was compared to multispectral data, clinical disease severity, angiographic findings, phantom experiments, and histological examinations from calf muscle biopsies. We were able to show that synergistic use of US/SWL-OAI is most likely to map clinical degeneration of the muscle and progressive PAD.

外周动脉疾病 (PAD) 会导致慢性血管闭塞，并导致严重灌注肢体的终末器官损伤。目前尚无可用的临床方法来确定慢性灌注不良引起的肌肉损伤。这项单中心前瞻性横断面研究调查了 193 名健康至严重 PAD 的成年人，以便使用非侵入性混合超声和单波长光声成像 (US/SWL-OAI) 量化 PAD 引起的小腿肌肉退化程度方法。US 提供形态信息，而 SWL-OAI 则可视化脉冲激光的吸收以及分子热弹性膨胀产生的声波。将 US/SWL-OAI 与多光谱数据、临床疾病严重程度、血管造影结果、模型实验和小腿肌肉活检的组织学检查进行比较。我们能够证明 US/SWL-OAI 的协同使用最有可能绘制肌肉的临床退化和进行性 PAD。