Direct-current-based image reconstruction versus direct-current included or excluded frequency-domain reconstruction...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Medical Imaging
• Computational Science

Background:

• Optical tomography is sensitive to measurement uncertainty, leading to image artifacts.
• Reconstruction methods vary in their handling of direct-current (DC) and frequency-domain data.
• Understanding artifact levels is crucial for accurate tomographic imaging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate image artifact levels in optical tomography under measurement uncertainty.
• To compare three reconstruction configurations: DC-only, DC-excluded frequency-domain, and DC-included frequency-domain.
• To determine the impact of different data types on reconstruction accuracy.

Main Methods:

• Analytic and synthetic studies were conducted.
• Simulations assessed reconstruction performance with varying measurement uncertainty.
• Key metrics included standard deviations of absorption coefficient (μa) and scattering properties (D or μs′).

Main Results:

• DC-only reconstruction demonstrated at least 1.4 times lower standard deviation for μa compared to frequency-domain methods.
• DC-only also showed slightly lower standard deviations for D (or μs′).
• Frequency-domain with DC generally outperformed DC-excluded, but the difference decreased with more measurements.

Conclusions:

• Direct-current (DC) data is more robust against measurement uncertainty in optical tomography.
• Frequency-domain methods benefit from including DC data, especially with limited measurements.
• A priori structural information can make reconstruction methods perform comparably.