Mammogram-based diffuse optical tomography

The study aims at developing an optical measurement module incorporated with an X-ray mammographic system to obtain diffuse optical images (DOI) for the detection of breast tumors. Two goals steer the study: (1) to enhance sensitivity and specificity of tumor detection through the use of functional DOI; and (2) to reduce radiation exposure by using only one mammogram, instead of two, as structure information to compute optical-coefficient images. A dual-direction (downward and upward) scanning device to project illuminated near infrared light with multiple-channel switching for both sources and detectors was designed and constructed to obtain double information. The designed and constructed NIR scanning module incorporates with GE Senographe 2000D to assist breast tumor detection.