Abstract
Generation of an accurate Cerenkov luminescence imaging model is a current issue of nuclear tomography with optical techniques. The article takes a pro-active approach toward whole-body Cerenkov luminescence tomography. The finite element framework employs the equation of radiative transfer via the third-order simplified spherical harmonics approximation to model Cerenkov photon propagation in a small animal. After this forward model is performed on a digital mouse with optical property heterogeneity and compared with the Monte Carlo method, we investigated the whole body reconstruction algorithm along a regularization path via coordinate descent. The endpoint of the follow-up study is the in vivo application, which provides three-dimensional biodistribution of the radiotracer uptake in the mouse from measured partial boundary currents. The combination of the forward and inverse model with elastic-net penalties is not only validated by numerical simulation, but it also effectively demonstrates in vivo imaging in small animals. Our exact reconstruction method enables optical molecular imaging to best utilize Cerenkov radiation emission from the decay of medical isotopes in tissues.
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Acknowledgments
This article is supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) under Grant No. 2011CB707700, the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant No. KGCX2-YW-907, the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University of Ministry of Education (PCSIRT) under Grant No. IRT0645, the Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 81027002, 81071205, and the Science and Technology Key Project of Beijing Municipal Education Commission under Grant No. KZ200910005005.
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Associate Editor Jing Bai oversaw the review of this article.
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Zhong, J., Tian, J., Yang, X. et al. Whole-Body Cerenkov Luminescence Tomography with the Finite Element SP3 Method. Ann Biomed Eng 39, 1728–1735 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-011-0261-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-011-0261-1