Method for 3-dimensional fluorescence tomographic imaging

1. A method for determining a concentration of a fluorophore in a medium as a function of three spatial coordinates of a three dimensional frame of reference, said method comprising:

acquiring fluorescence-based measurements from three or more source-detector pairs;

obtaining, for each source-detector pair, a moment of order k from fluorescence-based measurements acquired at that source-detector pair; and

determining said concentration as a function of said three spatial coordinates based on said moments of order k and on a weighting coefficient for each source-detector pair.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said fluorescence-based measurements are described by a photon diffusion equation and wherein said weighting coefficient is based on said photon diffusion equation.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein said photon diffusion equation is a normalized first order fluorescent Born approximation equation.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 wherein said fluorescence-based photon diffusion equation is a time-domain photon diffusion equation and wherein said measurements define a temporal point spread function (TPSF).

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said moments are selected from 0, 1 st , 2 nd moments and combinations thereof.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said moments are normalized moments.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein one of said three spatial coordinates represents depth relative to a surface of said medium.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said medium is a biological tissue.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8 wherein said biological tissue is selected from brain tissue and breast tissue.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8 wherein said fluorophore is an endogenous fluorophore.

11. The method as claimed in claim 8 wherein said fluorophore is an exogenous fluorophore.