Enhanced imaging resolution in dynamic fluorescence molecular tomography by multispectral excitation method (Conference Presentation)

Dynamic fluorescence molecular tomography (DFMT) is a promising method for the quantitative evaluation of the metabolic process of fluorescent agents in body. However, the resolution is limited due to the ill-posed nature of fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) and the high absorption and scattering of the fluorescent light in biological tissues. In this paper, the resolution of DFMT is improved by multispectral excitation method. Firstly, the imaged object with varied fluorescent concentrations at different time points is excited by several excitation lights with different wavelengths, and the fluorescent images are collected. Secondly, the individual FMT images at different time points are respectively reconstructed, and independent component analysis (ICA) is employed to decompose the fluorescent targets. The independent components (ICs) and corresponding spectrum courses (SCs) which obtained from ICA represent the spatial structures and spectral variations of the fluorescent targets, respectively. Thirdly, the ICs and SCs are combined to quantitatively recover the concentrations of individual fluorescent targets. Finally, the metabolic parameters and DFMT images are obtained by fitting the FMT images of each fluorescent targets at different time points into a two compartment model. Numerical simulations are carried out to validate the feasibility of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the resolution of DFMT is significantly improved. The metabolic curves can be correctly recovered even when the edge-edge-distance of the fluorescent targets is less than 0.1 cm.