Photonics based pre-clinical imaging is an extensively used technique to allow for the study of biologically relevant activity typically within a small-mouse model. Namely, bioluminescent tomography (BLT) attempts to tomographically reconstruct the 3-dimensional spatial light distribution of luminophores within a small animal given surface light measurements and known underlying optical parameters. Often it is the case where these optical parameters are unknown leading to the use of a ‘best’ guess approach or to direct measurements using either a multi-modal or dedicated system. Using these conventional approaches can lead to both inaccurate results and extending periods of imaging time. This work introduces the development of an algorithm that is used to accurately localize the spatial light distribution from a bioluminescence source within a subject by simultaneously reconstructing both the underlying optical properties and source spatial distribution and intensity from the same set of surface measurements. Through its application in 2- and 3-dimensional, homogeneous and heterogenous numerical models, it is demonstrated that the proposed algorithm is capable of replicating results as compared to ‘gold’ standard where the absolute optical properties are known. Additionally, the algorithm has been applied to experimental data using a tissue mimicking block phantom, recovering a spatial light distribution that has a localization error of ∼1.53 mm, which is better than previously published results without the need of assumptions regarding the underlying optical properties or source distribution.

中文翻译：

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同时进行漫射光学和生物发光层析成像以解决信号衰减问题，从而改善光源定位

基于光子学的临床前成像技术是一种广泛使用的技术，可用于研究通常在小小鼠模型中的生物学相关活性。即，生物发光体层摄影术（BLT）在给定表面光测量值和已知的基本光学参数的情况下，试图以断层摄影术重建小动物体内发光体的三维空间光分布。通常情况下，这些光学参数是未知的，从而导致使用“最佳”猜测方法或使用多模式或专用系统进行直接测量。使用这些常规方法可能会导致结果不准确以及成像时间延长。这项工作介绍了一种算法的开发，该算法可通过从同一组表面测量中同时重建基础光学特性以及光源空间分布和强度，来精确定位对象体内生物发光源的空间光分布。通过在二维和三维，均质和异质数值模型中的应用，证明了与已知绝对光学特性的“金”标准相比，该算法能够复制结果。此外，该算法已应用于使用组织模拟块体模的实验数据，恢复了空间误差约为1.53 mm的空间光分布，