Abstract
The diffuse optical tomography (DOT) technique reconstructs images of optical properties in biological
tissue from boundary measurements. Even though its image quality remains far from clinical use, DOT
has great potential for diagnostic optical imaging. Its image reconstruction algorithm basically consists
of two parts: forward and inverse problems. The radiative transfer equation (RTE) accurately describes
photon propagation in biological tissue. Because of its high computation load, the diffusion equation
(DE) is often used as a forward model. However, the DE is invalid in the low-scattering and/or highly
absorbing regions and near sources. The inverse problem is inherently ill-posed and highly
undetermined. The uncertainty of the optical properties of biological tissue also complicates image
reconstruction for DOT. Here, we first overview DOT and then describe our approaches for developing
accurate and efficient DOT algorithms. Finally, we discuss its future prospects.
