Optical time-of-flight and absorbance imaging of biologic media.
Imaging the interior of living bodies with light may assist in the diagnosis and treatment of a number of clinical problems, which include the early detection of tumors and hypoxic cerebral injury. An existing picosecond time-of-flight and absorbance (TOFA) optical system has been used to image a model biologic system and a rat. Model measurements confirmed TOFA principles in systems with a high degree of photon scattering; rat images, which were constructed from the variable time delays experienced by a fixed fraction of early-arriving transmitted photons, revealed identifiable internal structure. A combination of light-based quantitative measurement and TOFA localization may have applications in continuous, noninvasive monitoring for structural imaging and spatial chemometric analysis in humans.
Benaron
D A
DA
Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA 94305.
Stevenson
D K
DK
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011827:Radiation; D051381:Rats; D013053:Spectrophotometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors