Abstract
With the technique of transillumination imaging, we can visualize the structure and the physiological change inside an animal body. The usefulness of this technique in animal experiments was demonstrated in the example of functional imaging of the rat brain. Using a fluorescent medium, we can apply this technique to the body part which light does not penetrate through. An example of transcutaneous fluorescent imaging was presented as the result of animal experiment. To improve the image blurred by the scattering effect in transcutaneous imaging, a deconvolution technique with a depth-dependent point spread function (PSF) was proposed. The PSF was derived theoretically as an analytical solution in a closed form. Using this PSF, the contrast of the fluorescent image was improved for depths of 1-15 mm in a scattering medium. The visible depth was more than doubled with this technique. An experiment with a rat demonstrated considerable improvement of a transcutaneous image of the cerebral vein at a specified depth. The spread image of the heart was reduced to the correct size using the PSF with the actual depth of the heart. With the proposed technique, the usefulness of transcutaneous fluorescent imaging is promoted significantly in practice.
