An analytic reflection method for time-domain fluorescence diffuse optical tomography based on a generalized pulse spectrum technique

Abstract

An image reconstruction scheme for time-domain fluorescence diffuse optical tomography is proposed using a reflection-mode for a semi-infinite turbid geometry. The method is based on a generalized pulse spectrum technique that employs analytic expressions of the Laplace-transformed time-domain photon-diffusion model to construct a Born normalized inverse model, and a pair of real domain transform-factors to separate distributions of the fluorescent yield and lifetime. The methodology is validated with a specifically-developed fluorescent Monte-Carlo simulator or finite-element-based methods and its robustness to the background uncertainties is investigated.