A review of methods for solving the optical molecular tomography

Abstract

As a high-sensitivity and non-invasive technique, optical molecular tomography (OMT) can locate and visualize tissue quantitatively in three dimensions by collecting surface photons generated from luminescent biomarkers. It has great potential for tumor detection, surgery guidance, and pharmacokinetics research studies. However, due to the limited measurable surface photons and the highly scattered feature of photons, the reconstruction of OMT is highly ill-posed and ill-conditioned, which limits the performance in practice. To improve the accuracy of OMT, plenty of studies focus on precisely modeling photon propagation and accurately reconstructing light source. Since these methods are carried out based on different theories, we review famous solutions for the reconstruction in terms of the photon propagation models and inverse reconstruction algorithms to make an overall understanding for the methods of OMT reconstruction. Additionally, some prospects are listed to provide possible research orientation that may benefit future research.