Fluorescence molecular tomography for quantum yield and lifetime.

ABSTRACT

Fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) is a promising modality for noninvasive imaging of internal fluorescence agents in biological tissues, especially in small animal models, with applications in diagnosis, therapy, and drug design. In this paper, we present a fluorescent reconstruction algorithm that combines time-resolved fluorescence imaging data with photon-counting microcomputed tomography (PCMCT) images to estimate the quantum yield and lifetime of fluorescent markers in a mouse model. By incorporating PCMCT images, a permissible region of interest of fluorescence yield and lifetime can be roughly estimated as prior knowledge, reducing the number of unknown variables in the inverse problem and improving the image reconstruction stability. Our numerical experiments demonstrate the accuracy and stability of the proposed reconstruction method in the presence of data noise, achieving a reconstruction error of 0.02 ns for the fluorescence lifetime and an average relative error of 18% for quantum yield reconstruction.