Multiscale Hessian filter-based segmentation and quantification method for photoacoustic microangiography

The appearance of blood vessels is an important biomarker to distinguish diseased from healthy tissues in several fields of medical applications. Photoacoustic microangiography has the advantage of directly visualizing blood vessel networks within microcirculatory tissue. Usually these images are interpreted qualitatively. However, a quantitative analysis is needed to better describe the characteristics of the blood vessels. This Letter addresses this problem by leveraging an efficient multiscale Hessian filter-based segmentation method, and four measurement parameters are acquired. The feasibility of our approach is demonstrated on experimental data and we expect the proposed method to be beneficial for several microcirculatory disease studies.