PAISKINTONE dataset: photoacoustic imaging data from "the confounding effects of skin colour in photoacoustic imaging"

This is the raw data for a photoacoustic imaging dataset acquired from 42 participants with a skin tones ranging from Fitzpatrick Type 1 to Fitzpatrick Type 6, and a cohort of 6 participants with vitiligo. The images and raw photoacoustic data are provided in HDF5 format compressed into .tar.xz files. Details of how to process these data, corresponding colorimeter measurements, and pulse oximetry data can be found on the GitHub repository (https://github.com/BohndiekLab/PAISKINTONE) and the code is additionally archived as a .zip file here. Details of the study can be found in the paper (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74380-7). The dataset was collected during a prospective, exploratory observational trial (PAISKINTONE). The study was approved by the East of England - Cambridge South Research Committee (Ref: 23/EE/0019) and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from all study participants. The data were acquired between June 2023 and August 2024. Anonymised data are provided here. The data were acquired using the MSOT Acuity Echo CE system (iThera Medical GmbH, Munich, Germany), using wavelengths from 660 nm to 1300 nm (precise wavelengths are provided in the HDF5 files). Each participant was scanned repeatedly in several anatomical sites: the radial artery, the bicep muscle, the calf muscle, and the carotid artery. Additional anatomical sites were scanned for some of participants with vitiligo, corresponding to regions in which pigmentation was or was not present - this is specified in the HDF5 metadata. To easily explore this dataset, try PATATO, a Python library for photoacoustic imaging (pip install patato). In addition to the raw data, large files needed to reproduce the paper results are provided in this repository: forward_model.npz is a scipy sparse matrix used in image reconstruction. us_from_pa_simulations_output_images.tar.xz contains the result of melanin ultrasound simulations.