A novel finite-element-based algorithm for fluorescence molecular tomography of heterogeneous media

The knowledge of optical properties distribution of heterogeneous media has significant impact on the reconstructed fluorescence image quality in fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT). In this study, a novel finite-element-based algorithm for FMT of heterogeneous media is proposed. In the algorithm, optical properties are reconstructed using the conjugate gradient method. A modified method based on reverse differential scheme is deduced for calculating the gradient when the detector points are not restricted on boundary nodes. With the recovered optical properties, linear relationship between known surface measurements of emission light and unknown fluorescence yield is then obtained. FMT reconstruction is implemented by combining algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) and Landweber iteration method. With initial value provided by ART, Landweber iteration method improves the quantification smoothly with small step length between neighboring iterations. The algorithm was evaluated using phantoms of different heterogeneity configurations. Results show that the reconstructed fluorescence yield is insensitive to various degrees of heterogeneity for the proposed algorithm. In contrast, when assuming homogeneous optical properties, it shows that more underestimation of optical properties results in more underestimation of the reconstructed fluorescence yield. Fast computation speed of the proposed algorithm is also demonstrated in this study.