Development of a combined multifrequency MRI-DOT system for human breast imaging using a priori information

Breast cancer is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity among women with early diagnosis being vital to successful treatment. Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) is an emerging medical imaging modality that provides information that is complementary to current screening modalities such as MRI and mammography, and may improve the specificity in determining cancer malignancy. Using high-resolution anatomic images as a priori information improves the accuracy of DOT. Measurements are presented characterizing the performance of our system. Preliminary data is also shown illustrating the use of a priori MRI data in phantom studies.a