Analysis and optimization of a diffuse photon optical tomography of turbid media

In a numerical study, we investigate a diffuse-photon computed tomography of a turbid medium. Using a perturbation approach, we relate through a matrix K a bulk heterogeneous distribution of the optical absorption coefficient &mgr;(a) that characterizes the heterogeneity in an otherwise homogeneous turbid medium to the diffuse photon flux that emerges from its surface. By studying the condition number (N(C)) of the matrix K as a function of illumination-detection schemes and choices of reconstruction grids, we explore strategies that optimize the fidelity and spatial resolution of the computed tomography.