Phantoms for evaluating the impact of skin pigmentation on photoacoustic imaging and oximetry performance

Abstract

Recent reports have raised concerns of potential racial disparities in performance of optical oximetry technologies. To investigate how variable epidermal melanin content affects performance of photoacoustic imaging (PAI) devices, we developed plastisol phantoms combining swappable skin-mimicking layers with a breast phantom containing either India ink or blood adjusted to 50–100% SO 2 using sodium dithionite. Increasing skin pigmentation decreased maximum imaging depth by up to 25%, enhanced image clutter, and increased root-mean-square error in SO 2 from 8.0 to 17.6% due to signal attenuation and spectral coloring effects. This phantom tool can aid in evaluating PAI device robustness to ensure high performance in all patients.