Image guided near-infrared spectroscopy of breast tissue in vivo using boundary element method

• Published in: Journal of biomedical optics Vol. 15; no. 6; p. 61703
• Main Authors: Srinivasan, Subhadra, Carpenter, Colin M., Ghadyani, Hamid R., Taka, Senate J., Kaufman, Peter A., DiFlorio-Alexander, Roberta M., Wells, Wendy A., Pogue, Brian W., Paulsen, Keith D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers 01.11.2010
• Subjects: Adult; Algorithms; Biomedical materials; Boundary element method; Breast; Breast Neoplasms - diagnosis; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Female; Humans; Image Enhancement - instrumentation; Image Enhancement - methods; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - instrumentation; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; In vivo testing; In vivo tests; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - instrumentation; Mathematical analysis; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Special Section on Optical Diagnostic and Biophotonic Methods from Bench to Bedside; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared - instrumentation; Subtraction Technique - instrumentation; Surgical implants; Tumors
• ISSN: 1083-3668; 1560-2281; 1560-2281
• DOI: 10.1117/1.3499419

We demonstrate quantitative functional imaging using image-guided near-infrared spectroscopy (IG-NIRS) implemented with the boundary element method (BEM) for reconstructing 3-D optical property estimates in breast tissue in vivo. A multimodality MRI-NIR system was used to collect measurements of light reflectance from breast tissue. The BEM was used to model light propagation in 3-D based only on surface discretization in order to reconstruct quantitative values of total hemoglobin (HbT), oxygen saturation, water, and scatter. The technique was validated in experimental measurements from heterogeneous breast-shaped phantoms with known values and applied to a total of seven subjects comprising six healthy individuals and one participant with cancer imaged at two time points during neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Using experimental measurements from a heterogeneous breast phantom, BEM for IG-NIRS produced accurate values for HbT in the inclusion with a <3% error. Healthy breast tissues showed higher HbT and water in fibroglandular tissue than in adipose tissue. In a subject with cancer, the tumor showed higher HbT compared to the background. HbT in the tumor was reduced by 9 μM during treatment. We conclude that 3-D MRI-NIRS with BEM provides quantitative and functional characterization of breast tissue in vivo through measurement of hemoglobin content. The method provides potentially complementary information to DCE-MRI for tumor characterization.