The poor spatial resolution and reproducibility of the images are disadvantages of near infrared topography. The authors proposed the combination of the double-density probe arrangement and the image reconstruction algorithm using a spatial sensitivity profile to improve the spatial resolution and the reproducibility. However, the proposed method was evaluated only by the simplified adult head model. It is uncertain whether the proposed method is effective to the actual head that has complicated structure. In this study, the proposed method is evaluated by the virtual head phantom the 3Dstructure of which is based upon an MRI scan of an adult head. The absorption change the size of which is almost equivalent to the width of the brain gyri was measured by the conventional method and the proposed method to evaluate the spatial resolution of the topographic images obtained by each method. The positions of the probe arrangements are slightly changed and the topographic images of the same brain activation measured by two probe positions are compared to evaluate the reproducibility of the NIR topography. The results indicate that the combination of the double-density probe arrangement and the image reconstruction algorithm using the spatial sensitivity profile can improve both the spatial resolution and the reproducibility of the topographic image of brain activation in the virtual head phantom. However, the uneven thickness of the superficial tissues affects the accuracy of the position of activation in the images.

Date Published: 12 July 2007
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 6629, Diffuse Optical Imaging of Tissue, 662906 (12 July 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.728105

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6629:
Diffuse Optical Imaging of Tissue
Brian W. Pogue; Rinaldo Cubeddu, Editor(s)