Topographic imaging of an absorbing object in a tissue-like scattering medium using a single source-detector pair

Abstract

Diffuse optical tomography is an emerging biomedical imaging technique, due to its numerous advantages, such as low cost and non-ionizing radiation. In this work, we have developed a very simple setup, which included a single source – photodiode (SP) pair for scanning a sample of water with diluted Intralipid, simulating a biological tissue. LEDs emitting at 470, 525 and 624 nm, as well as a 650 nm Fabry Perot laser, were used as light sources. Scattered light from the sample was detected by the photodiode placed next to the LED. The SP distance could vary and the phantom could be scanned by moving the SP pair in precise, small and automated steps without any intervention during the measurements. Therefore, we obtained measurements from multiple locations on the sample, with just one SP pair. The presented experimental system verified the feasibility of deploying extremely low cost devices for detection and imaging absorbing objects of 1 cm height, placed inside a scattering medium. Maximum depth detection was 2.5 cm. As expected, the quality of the obtained images was degrading, as the object’s depth or the scanning step was increasing. Additionally, we developed Monte Carlo simulations of the setup, which achieved good agreement with the experimental results. We also conducted another set of simulations, studying the depth sensitivity of a single static SP pair considering a scattering medium similar to the experimental phantom with and without object. We observed that the depth sensitivity increases as the source wavelength increases from 450 nm to 650 nm.