UCL (University College London) researchers have developed a hand-held scanner that produces detailed 3D images in seconds, which can facilitate earlier disease diagnosis. Tested on patients at University College London Hospitals (UCLH), the scanner uses photoacoustic tomography (PAT) to visualize blood vessels up to 15mm deep in real-time. This provides us with intricate images - a huge improvement upon older models that took five minutes or longer to capture scans.

The technology is 100 to 1,000 times faster than previous PAT scanners, and it does not compromise on quality. It churns out high-quality images without any motion blur. Early clinical trials on patients with diabetes, breast cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis were an excellent showcase of the scanner’s ability to detect subtle changes in blood vessels that standard imaging techniques missed.

UCLH consultant radiologist Andrew Plumb spoke in detail about the tech's potential to diagnose conditions like diabetes, where blood vessel damage is challenging to detect.

In one of our patients, we could see smooth, uniform vessels in the left foot and deformed, squiggly vessels in the same region of the right foot, indicative of problems that may lead to tissue damage in future. Photoacoustic imaging could give us much more detailed information to facilitate early diagnosis, as well as better understand disease progression more generally

The scanner's speed and precision makes it even more practical for clinical use, especially for frail patients, and could assist in diagnosing diseases like cancer and cardiovascular conditions. Further trials are underway to confirm these results and explore its application in additional medical applications.