Born-normalized molecular optical projection tomography of inflamed hearts.

<p>(A) Dual channel imaging. A cocktail containing two different molecular imaging agents is administered intravenously. (B) Dual channel Born-normalized near-infrared transillumination fluorescence image on day 5 after myocardial infarction (MI), 24 hours after probe injection. High signal in both the 680 nm (left) and 750 nm (right) fluorescence channels can be observed in the heart region, indicating elevated protease and phagocytic activity. (C) A narrow bandwidth light source excites the fluorophores attached to a molecular probe located within the sample, and fluorescent light is then emitted. Both excitation and emission light are, in part, absorbed by the sample on the way to and from the fluorophore, respectively. Using a Born-normalized approach, fluorescence tomographic reconstructions can be obtained, after correcting for the sample's absorption map. (D) Image processing algorithms are applied to tomographically obtain signal distribution reconstructions in whole hearts and to remove noise and artifacts contributions.