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The accurate diagnosis of the composition of intestinal strictures is critical in the management of Crohn’s disease (CD)[1], as inflammatory strictures may respond to antiinflammatory therapy, but late-stage fibrotic strictures require surgical resection. In addition, the intestinal expression of extracellular matrix genes, ie fibrosis, is an important predictor of future complicated and obstructive CD [2]. Mucosal biopsies are limited by sampling depth, rarely reaching the muscular layers where fibrosis occurs. Conventional imaging modalities can identify the presence of intestinal strictures by structural changes [3]. However, none of the modalities can assess the pathological markers of fibrosis in contrast to inflammation [3]. Previous studies by us and other groups have examined detecting collagen deposition in intestinal fibrosis using magnetization transfer MRI [4] and photoacoustic (PA) imaging [5-7]. Our pilot study using …