title: Parametric estimation of 3D tubular structures for diffuse optical tomography.
abstract: We explore the use of diffuse optical tomography (DOT) for the recovery of 3D tubular shapes representing vascular structures in breast tissue. Using a parametric level set method (PaLS) our method incorporates the connectedness of vascular structures in breast tissue to reconstruct shape and absorption values from severely limited data sets. The approach is based on a decomposition of the unknown structure into a series of two dimensional slices. Using a simplified physical model that ignores 3D effects of the complete structure, we develop a novel inter-slice regularization strategy to obtain global regularity. We report on simulated and experimental reconstructions using realistic optical contrasts where our method provides a more accurate estimate compared to an unregularized approach and a pixel based reconstruction.
authors: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155,  USA ; Currently with Intellectual Ventures, Global Good, Bellevue, WA 98122,  USA.
authors: Fridrik
authors: F
authors: Larusson
authors: Pamela G
authors: PG
authors: Anderson
authors: Elizabeth
authors: E
authors: Rosenberg
authors: Misha E
authors: ME
authors: Kilmer
authors: Angelo
authors: A
authors: Sassaroli
authors: Sergio
authors: S
authors: Fantini
authors: Eric L
authors: EL
authors: Miller
keywords: (100.3190) Inverse problems; (170.3010) Image reconstruction techniques; (170.3660) Light propagation in tissues; (170.3830) Mammography; (170.3880) Medical and biological imaging; (170.5280) Photon migration; (170.6960) Tomography; (290.1990) Diffusion; (290.7050) Turbid media