Anatomical and functional images of in vitro and in vivo tissues by NIR time-domain diffuse optical tomography

Abstract

Near infra-red (NIR) diffuse optical tomography (DOT) has gained much attention and it will be clinically applied to imaging breast, neonatal head, and the hemodynamics of the brain because of its noninvasiveness and deep penetration in biological tissue. Prior to achieving the imaging of infant brain using DOT, the developed methodologies need to be experimentally justified by imaging some real organs with simpler structures. Here we report our results of an in vitro chicken leg and an in vivo exercising human forearm from the data measured by a multi-channel time-resolved NIR system. Tomographic images were reconstructed by a two-dimensional image reconstruction algorithm based on a modified generalized pulse spectrum technique for simultaneous reconstruction of the μa and μ′s. The absolute μa- and μ's -images revealed the inner structures of the chicken leg and the forearm, where the bones were clearly distinguished from the muscle. The Δ μa-images showed the blood volume changes during the forearm exercise, proving that the system and the image reconstruction algorithm could potentially be used for imaging not only the anatomic structure but also the hemodynamics in neonatal heads.