Near-Infrared Fluorescence-Enhanced Optical Tomography Banghe Zhu the University of Texas Health Science Center
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Florida International University FIU Digital Commons Department of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Biomedical Engineering Publications 8-25-2016 Near-Infrared Fluorescence-Enhanced Optical Tomography Banghe Zhu The University of Texas Health Science Center Anuradha Godavarty Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/biomed_eng Part of the Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons Recommended Citation Banghe Zhu and Anuradha Godavarty, “Near-Infrared Fluorescence-Enhanced Optical Tomography,” BioMed Research International, vol. 2016, Article ID 5040814, 10 pages, 2016. doi:10.1155/2016/5040814 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the Biomedical Engineering at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Department of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2016, Article ID 5040814, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/5040814 Review Article Near-Infrared Fluorescence-Enhanced Optical Tomography Banghe Zhu1 and Anuradha Godavarty2 1 Center for Molecular Imaging, The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA 2Optical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33174, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Banghe Zhu; [email protected] Received 1 July 2016; Accepted 25 August 2016 Academic Editor: Shouping Zhu Copyright © 2016 B. Zhu and A. Godavarty. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Fluorescence-enhanced optical imaging using near-infrared (NIR) light developed for in vivo molecular targeting and reporting of cancer provides promising opportunities for diagnostic imaging. The current state of the art of NIR fluorescence-enhanced optical tomography is reviewed in the context of the principle of fluorescence, the different measurement schemes employed, and the mathematical tools established to tomographically reconstruct the fluorescence optical properties in various tissue domains. Finally, we discuss the recent advances in forward modeling and distributed memory parallel computation to provide robust, accurate, and fast fluorescence-enhanced optical tomography. 1. Introduction of sentinel lymph node staging, metastatic spread, and multifocality of breast disease [4]. By the use of exogenous Over the past two decades, there has been a considerable NIR fluorochromes and reporter probes, NIR optical imaging interest in the use of near-infrared (NIR) light for deep tissue technique can overcome these limitations. imaging. Briefly, NIR optical imaging takes advantage of the Fluorescence-enhanced optical imaging involves the use wavelength range of around 650–900 nm, wherein the major of fluorescent contrast agents in order to enhance the tissue chromophores such as hemoglobin, lipid, and water optical contrast between normal and diseased tissues. In exhibit their lowest absorption coefficients [1]. Additionally, fluorescence-enhanced optical imaging process, when NIR the interference from tissue autofluorescence is minimized in light at the excitation wavelength is launched onto the tissue this wavelength regime, which can further enhance optical surface, the photons propagate into the tissues, during which imaging contrast [2]. NIR optical imaging is based on the they are minimally absorbed and preferentially scattered. principle of launching NIR light onto the tissue surface Upon encountering a fluorescent molecule, the photons and detecting the scattered and attenuated NIR signal. The excite the fluorescent molecules from their ground state to normal tissues are differentiated from the diseased tissues a higher orbital level. After residing at the higher energy based on the inherent differences (termed as endogenous orbital for a period defined as the fluorescence lifetime,the contrast) in the optical properties (in terms of absorption and fluorescent molecule emits fluorescent signal of greater wave- scattering coefficient) of the tissue medium, thus providing length than the incident NIR light. The quantum efficiency physiological information about the tissue. For example, the ofthefluorescentemission() is the fraction of excited dye clinical application of NIR optical imaging technique towards molecules, or activated fluorophores, which relax radiatively. breast cancer diagnosis is based on the intrinsic absorp- The emitted fluorescent signal along with the perturbed tion contrast originating from the tumor angiogenesis and excitation signal propagates in the tissue, before they are the hypervascularization of tumor periphery [3]. However, detected at the tissue surface. Fluorescence-enhanced optical the angiogenesis-mediated absorption contrast approaches imaging can potentially offer a high specificity and sensitivity cannot effectively detect the early cancer and assessment in detecting the early cancer and assessment of sentinel lymph 2 BioMed Research International ACs Source Source Detector Source AC Intensity Intensity Intensity d Detector Detector DCs DCd (a) (b) (c) Figure 1: Different measurement approaches in optical imaging: (a) continuous wave, (b) time-domain photon migration, and (c) frequency- domain photon migration. node staging, metastatic spread, and multifocality of breast and (iii) the frequency-domain photon migration (FDPM) disease and provide information about the environment (see Figure 1) [10, 11]. of the fluorophore molecules as well as their location by appropriate analysis of reemitted fluorescence signal. 2.1. Continuous Wave-Based Measurement Approach. In a Many fluorescence optical imaging techniques are avail- CW-based measurement approach, the incident excitation able for imaging surface (∼1 mm) and subsurface (∼4 mm) energy from a source (i.e., source intensity) is constant over fluorescent events (microscopic and macroscopic imaging timescale of milliseconds or modulated at low frequency modalities with respect to the resulting resolution). The (a few kHz) and the reemitted fluorescence energy from microscopic fluorescence imaging techniques mainly consist exogenous agents is likewise constant (see Figure 1(a)). As the of confocal reflectance imaging, multiphoton microscopy, excitation light travels through the absorption and scattering and multiphoton laser scanning microscopy [5]. Owing to medium, it is exponentially attenuated with respect to the the restricted field of view (less than 1 mm in diameter), incident light. The amount of fluorescence generated from a the microscopic imaging techniques are the most inefficient fluorochrome within the tissue is proportional to the product means to image the small size tissue. Macroscopic fluo- of the fluorochrome concentration, quantum efficiency, and rescence reflectance imaging (FRI) techniques offer simple the local excitation fluence. The propagation of NIR light photographic methods, in which an array is used for point through tissue is well described by diffusion equation derived delivering of laser energy and point collecting of generated from the radiative transport equation [12, 13]. Coupled fluorescence; or an expanded excitation beam is employed diffusion equations are employed in order to predict the for area illumination and an array detector or an area fluorescence light generation and propagation in tissue, and detector (CCD or CMOS camera) is used for capturing the theequationsaregivenby generatedfluorescenceonwholesmallanimalorthelarge ∇⋅( ()⃗ ∇Φ ()⃗ )−( + ) ()⃗ Φ (⇀) size tissue [6, 7]. Appropriate combination of filters is gener- ally introduced to separate the generated fluorescence from =− (⇀), strong background excitation light [2, 8]. FRI technique has several limitations, including nonuniformity of the expanded (1) ∇⋅ (⇀)∇Φ (⇀)−( + )(⇀)Φ (⇀) excitation beam, incapability to quantify the fluorochrome, and low imaging quality contaminated by intrinsic light from = (⇀)Φ (⇀), different tissue layers. Hence, this technique is suitable for imaging of superficial structure and may engender feint if one where Φ represents the fluence and is the absorption −1 has not accounted for nonlinear effect dependence on lesion coefficient (cm ), where the subscripts and correspond depth and tissue optical properties [9]. In order to resolve to excitation and emission wavelength, respectively, and the and quantify fluorochromes deeper into tissue, tomographic subscripts and denote the chromophores (i.e., the endoge- approaches are necessary. This review is focused on the math- nous chromophores in tissues) and fluorophores or exoge- ematical tools developed towards two-/three-dimensional nous fluorescing agents, respectively; is the excitation (2D/3D) fluorescence-enhanced optical tomography. photon source; ⃗ is the positional vector at a given point. The excitation fluence, Φ, couples the diffusion equations (1). The optical diffusion coefficients at the excitation wavelength 2. Measurement Approaches andemissionwavelength are given by 1 In general, diffuse (nonfluorescence) or fluorescence-en- ()⃗ = , hanced optical imaging is performed using one of the three