A method for three-dimensional time-resolved optical tomography

We present an overview of time-resolved optical tomography together with the hardware and software methods that we have developed for a clinical instrument that implements this modality. The hardware is based on a multichannel photon-counting technique that records the histograms of photons time-of-flight through highly scattering and attenuating media. The software is based on a finite element model that is iteratively updated in order to minimize the difference between measured and modeled data. We have presented a first experimental reconstruction of a three-dimensional (3D) distribution of variable absorption and scattering coefficient, together with an ideal simulation of the same case. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 11, 2–11, 2000