Simultaneous Reconstruction of Absorption and Scattering Maps with Ultrasound Localization: Feasibility Study Using Transmission Geometry

We report the experimental results of the simultaneous reconstruction of absorption and scattering coefficient maps with ultrasound localization. Near-infrared (NIR) data were obtained from frequency domain and dc systems with source and detector fibers configured in transmission geometry. High- or low-contrast targets located close to either the boundary or the center of the turbid medium were reconstructed by using NIR data only and NIR data with ultrasound localization. Results show that the mean reconstructed absorption coefficient and the spatial distribution of the absorption map have been improved significantly with ultrasound localization. The improvements in the mean scattering coefficient and the spatial distribution of the scattering coefficient are moderate. When both the absorption and the scattering coefficients are reconstructed the performance of the frequency-domain system is much better than that of the dc system.