The best kidney: Using photoacoustic imaging for assessing pre-transplantation kidney quality (Conference Presentation)

In this work, we present the first time use of photoacoustic imaging for assessing the quality of donor kidneys pre-transplantation. There is a pressing clinical need to quantify the fibrotic (scarring) burden in a non-invasive manner to give clinicians crucial information before they decide whether to accept a donor kidney. Our results in human kidneys show that photoacoustic imaging can be a robust tool for assessing the degree of scarring, an important predictor of post-transplantation clinical outcome.