Phantom and mouse experiments of time-domain fluorescence tomography using total light approach

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Medical Imaging
• Fluorescence Tomography

Background:

• Time-domain fluorescence tomography (TDFT) is a powerful imaging technique.
• Accurate modeling of light propagation is crucial for TDFT.
• Existing methods can be computationally intensive.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the proposed total light approach for TDFT.
• To assess the computational efficiency and accuracy of the total light approach.
• To demonstrate the applicability of the total light approach in both phantom and in vivo settings.

Main Methods:

• Acquisition of time-resolved temporal profiles from cylindrical phantoms with indocyanine green (ICG) solutions.
• Implementation of the total light approach to solve the forward model for light propagation.
• In vivo experiments using a mouse model with an embedded ICG capsule.

Main Results:

• The total light approach reduced computation time for solving the forward model.
• Reconstructed images accurately reflected ICG concentration distributions in phantoms with ~10 mm spatial resolution.
• In vivo mouse experiments showed accurate ICG distribution reconstruction, despite minor autofluorescence artifacts near the skin.

Conclusions:

• The total light approach is effective in accelerating TDFT.
• This method provides accurate quantitative imaging of fluorescent agents.
• The approach shows promise for biomedical applications requiring efficient and precise fluorescence imaging.