Imaging performance of a hybrid x-ray computed tomography-fluorescence molecular tomography system using priors

Methods: Approaches that incorporate structural prior information were included in the inverse problem by adding a penalty term to the minimization function utilized for image reconstructions. Results were compared as to their performance with simulated and experimental data from a lung inflammation animal model and against the inversions achieved when not using priors. Results: The importance of using priors over stand-alone inversions is also showcased with high spatial sampling simulated and experimental data. The approach of optimal performance in resolving fluorescent biodistribution in small animals is also discussed. Conclusions: Inclusion of prior information from x-ray CT data in the reconstruction of the fluorescence biodistribution leads to improved agreement between the reconstruction and validation images for both simulated and experimental data.