Full three-dimensional segmentation and quantification of tumor vessels for photoacoustic images.

Quantitative analysis of tumor vessels is of great significance for tumor staging and diagnosis. Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) has been proven to be an effective way to visualize comprehensive tumor vascular networks in three-dimensional (3D) volume, while previous studies only quantified the vessels projected in one plane. In this study, tumor vessels were segmented and quantified in a full 3D framework. It had been verified in the phantom experiments that the 3D quantification results have better accuracy than 2D. Furthermore, in vivo vessel images were quantified by 2D and 3D quantification methods respectively. And the difference between these two results is significant. In this study, complete vessel segmentation and quantification method within a 3D framework was implemented, which showed obvious advantage in the analysis accuracy of 3D photoacoustic images, and potentially improve tumor study and diagnosis.