Functional Imaging of the Vascular Bed by Dynamic Optical Tomography

In this report we present a brief outline of our technological approaches to developing a comprehensive imaging platform suitable for the investigation of the dynamics of the hemoglobin signal in large tissue structures using NIRS imaging techniques. Our approach includes a combined hardware and software development effort that provides for i) hardware integration, ii) system calibration, iii) data integrity checks, iv) image recovery, v) image enhancement and vi) signal processing. Presented are representative results obtained from human subjects that explore the sensitivity and other capabilities of the measuring system to detect focal hemodynamic responses in the head, breast and limb of volunteers. Results obtained support the contention that time-series NIRS imaging is a powerful and sensitive technique for exploring the hemodynamics of healthy and diseased tissues. 1