Data preprocessing method for fluorescence molecular tomography using a priori information provided by CT.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Imaging
• Optical Imaging
• Molecular Imaging

Background:

• Combined micro-CT and fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) systems offer dual anatomical and functional insights.
• Preprocessing is crucial for integrating data from micro-CT and FMT effectively.
• Accurate reconstruction in FMT relies on precise source and detector localization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a data preprocessing method for combined micro-CT and FMT systems.
• To leverage anatomical information from micro-CT for enhanced FMT data extraction.
• To validate the performance of the proposed method using experimental rat imaging.

Main Methods:

• Utilized micro-CT to extract boundary information of the animal and holder.
• Employed ray tracing to determine valid excitation beam paths and source locations.
• Applied a combination of perspective projection and inverse ray tracing for detector projection analysis.

Main Results:

• Successfully extracted valid data for FMT reconstruction using CT-derived a priori information.
• Demonstrated accurate localization of optical sources and detector projections.
• Validated the imaging performance of the combined system through rat experiments.

Conclusions:

• The proposed data preprocessing method enhances the utility of combined micro-CT and FMT systems.
• This approach enables more accurate anatomical and functional imaging in small animal studies.
• The method provides a robust solution for integrating multimodal imaging data.