A direct approach to time domain fluorescence tomography based on asymptotic lifetime analysis

摘要

A theoretical framework is presented that allows a lifetime based analysis of the entire temporal diffuse fluorescence response curve from a turbid medium. Optimization studies using singular value decomposition analysis show that direct time domain fluorescence reconstructions are optimally performed using a few points near the peak and rise portions of the temporal response. It is also shown that the initial portion of the fluorescent response curve offers superior contrast-to-noise performance, while the late decay portions offer minimal cross-talk between multiple lifetime components.