Adaptive finite element methods for fluorescence enhanced optical tomography

Date

2006-10-30

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Publisher

Texas A&M University

Abstract

Fluorescence enhanced optical tomography is a promising molecular imaging modality which employs a near infrared fluorescent molecule as an imaging agent and time-dependent measurements of fluorescent light propagation and generation. In this dissertation a novel fluorescence tomography algorithm is proposed to reconstruct images of targets contrasted by fluorescence within the tissues from boundary fluorescence emission measurements. An adaptive finite element based reconstruction algorithm for high resolution, fluorescence tomography was developed and validated with non-contact, planewave frequency-domain fluorescence measurements on a tissue phantom. The image reconstruction problem was posed as an optimization problem in which the fluorescence optical property map which minimized the difference between the experimentally observed boundary fluorescence and that predicted from the diffusion model was sought. A regularized Gauss-Newton algorithm was derived and dual adaptive meshes were employed for solution of coupled photon diffusion equations and for updating the fluorescence optical property map in the tissue phantom. The algorithm was developed in a continuous function space setting in a mesh independent manner. This allowed the meshes to adapt during the tomography process to yield high resolution images of fluorescent targets and to accurately simulate the light propagation in tissue phantoms from area-illumination. Frequency-domain fluorescence data collected at the illumination surface was used for reconstructing the fluorescence yield distribution in a 512 cm3, tissue phantom filled with 1% Liposyn solution. Fluorescent targets containing 1 micro-molar Indocyanine Green solution in 1% Liposyn and were suspended at the depths of up to 2cm from the illumination surface. Fluorescence measurements at the illumination surface were acquired by a gain-modulated image intensified CCD camera system outfitted with holographic band rejection and optical band pass filters. Excitation light at the phantom surface source was quantified by utilizing cross polarizers. Rayleigh resolution studies to determine the minimum detectable sepatation of two embedded fluorescent targets was attempted and in the absence of measurement noise, resolution down to the transport limit of 1mm was attained. The results of this work demonstrate the feasibility of high-resolution, molecular tomography in clinic with rapid non-contact area measurements.

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