Optical Fluorescence Tomography With The Equation Of Radiative Transfer For Molecular Imaging

摘要

Optical fluorescence tomography recovers the spatial distribution of light emitting fluorophores inside a highly scattering medium. The quantification of a non-uniform quantum yield and fluorophore absorption distribution is of major interest in molecular imaging of biological tissue. We have developed a fluorescence image reconstruction code that is based on the particle transport equation. Since the algorithm does not rely on the diffusion approximation it promises to yield more accurate results in highly absorbing media or media with small geometries. We show that the code can be employed in a two-stage reconstruction process to obtain images of the fluorophore absorption and of the quantum yield.