IMPROVED RECONSTRUCTION ALGORITHM FOR LUMINESCENCE OPTICAL TOMOGRAPHYWHEN BACKGROUND LUMIPHORE IS PRESENT

We examine the impact of background lumiphore on image quality in lumi nescence optical tomography. A modification of a previously described algorithm [J. Chang, H. L. Graber, and R. L. Barbour, J. Opt. Sec. Am. A 14, 288-299 (1997); J. Chang, H. L. Graber, and R. L. Barbour, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 44, 810-822 (1997)] that estimates the background luminescence directly from the detector readings is developed. Numeri cal simulations were performed to calculate the diffusion-regime limit ing form of forward-problem solutions for a specific test medium. We p erformed image reconstructions with and without white noise added to t he detector readings, using both the original and the improved version s of the algorithm. The results indicate that the original version pro duces unsatisfactory reconstructions when background lumiphore is pres ent, whereas the improved algorithm yields qualitatively better images , especially for small target-to-background luminescence yield ratios. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.