Path ways to increase reconstruction accuracy and depth sensitivity in mesoscopic fluorescence molecular tomography

Using the method of mesoscopic fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT), a phantom with a fluorophore forming periodic spatial structures was experimentally reconstructed. It is shown that the use of reflectance geometry with a high density of sources and detectors helps increase reconstruction accuracy and resolve structures 0.55 mm in diameter at depths to 5 mm inclusive. The depth sensitivity of the proposed mesoscopic FMT method was tested through the analysis of sensitivity functions obtained in a series of calculations by the modernized TurbidMC code that implements the Monte Carlo method. Calculated results demonstrate that the depth sensitivity can be improved due to the optical clearing of the object’s surface layer.