A multi-projection non-contact tomography setup for imaging arbitrary geometries

Optical imaging and tomography in tissues can facilitate the quantitative study of several important chromophores and fluorophores in-vivo. Due to this fact, there has been great interest in developing imaging systems offering quantitative information on the location and concentration of chromophores and fluorescent probes. However, most imaging systems currently used in reasearch make use of fiber technology for delivery and detection, which restricts the size ofthe photon collecting arrays leading to insufficient spatial sampling and field of view. To enable large data sets and full 3600angular measurements, we developed a novel imaging system that enables 3D imaging of fluorescent signals in bodies of arbitrary shapes in a non-contact geometry in combination with a 3D surface reconstruction algorithm. The system is appropriate for in-vivo small animal imaging of fluorescent probes. The system consists of a rotating sample holder and a lens coupled CCD camera in combination with a fiber coupled scanning device. The accuracy of the system in obtaining the surface reconstruction was measured to be in the order of 1μm.