Systems and methods of optimizing functional images of a lesion region using guided diffuse optical tomography

A computer-implemented method of generating at least one optimized functional image of a lesion region of a breast of a subject comprising:

• receiving, using a computing device, a plurality of measurements from a diffuse optical tomography (DOT) device, the plurality of measurements comprising lesion functional data from the lesion region of the breast and reference functional data from a healthy tissue region of a contralateral breast;
• transforming, using the computing device, the lesion functional data and the reference functional data to produce perturbation data, the perturbation data comprising a normalized difference between the lesion functional data and the reference functional data;
• generating, using the computing device, a preliminary estimate of the functional image by applying a truncated pseudoinverse matrix of a weight matrix to the perturbation data, the weight matrix comprising a plurality of elements representing system measurement sensitivity and distribution of diffused optical waves in a homogenous medium;
• generating, using the computing device, each optimized functional image by iteratively optimizing successive estimates of the functional image regularized by the preliminary estimate of the functional image weighted by a regularization parameter, wherein a value of the optimized functional image at each voxel in the lesion region is indicative of a hemoglobin concentration at that voxel;
• and
• displaying the at least one optimized functional image on a display device.

A non-transitory computer readable medium that includes computer-executable instructions for generating at least one optimized functional image of a lesion region of a breast, wherein when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, the computer-executable instructions cause the at least one processor to:

• receive a plurality of measurements from a diffuse optical tomography (DOT) device, the plurality of measurements comprising lesion functional data from the lesion region of the breast and reference functional data from a healthy tissue region of a contralateral breast;
• transform the lesion functional data and the reference functional data to produce perturbation data, the perturbation data comprising a normalized difference between the lesion functional data and the reference functional data;
• generate a preliminary estimate of the functional image by applying a truncated pseudoinverse matrix of a weight matrix to the perturbation data, the weight matrix comprising a plurality of elements representing system measurement sensitivity and distribution of diffused optical waves in a homogenous medium;
• generate each optimized functional image by iteratively optimizing successive estimates of the functional image regularized by the preliminary estimate of the functional image weighted by a regularization parameter, wherein a value of the optimized functional image at each voxel in the lesion region is indicative of a hemoglobin concentration at that voxel;
• and
• display the at least one optimized functional image on a display device.