Fluorescent optical tomography with large data sets

In recent years, optical tomography (OT) of highly scattering biological samples has increasingly relied on noncontact CCD-based imaging devices that can record extremely large data sets, with up to 10(9) independent measurements per sample. Reconstruction of such data sets requires fast algorithms. The latter have been developed and applied experimentally in our previous work to imaging of the intrinsic absorption coefficient of highly scattering media. However, it is widely recognized that the use of fluorescent contrast agents in OT has the potential to significantly enhance the technique. We show that the algorithms previously developed by us can be modified to reconstruct the concentration of fluorescent contrast agents. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.