Monte Carlo modeling of temporal point spread functions and sensitivity functions for mesoscopic time-resolved fluorescence molecular tomography

Abstract

The paper describes a TurbidMC code that implements a perturbative Monte Carlo method to model temporal point spread functions and sensitivity functions for time-resolved fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT). The code is aimed at working with a particular FMT method published earlier (Ref. [22]) which defines the specificity of sensitivity function calculation. The method solves the inverse problem first for a generalized fluorescence parameter distribution function and then calculates separate distributions for the fluorophore absorption coefficient and the fluorescence lifetime. The proper operation of the code was verified through a comparison between fluorescence temporal point spread functions from test calculations and data from experiments where a phantom with a fluorophore was scanned with a three-channel probe in the mesoscopic reflectance regime. An example is given on the reconstruction of fluorescence parameter distributions. It shows that the sensitivity functions are calculated correctly.