Simulated parametric studies in optical imaging of tumors through temporal log-slope difference mapping.

Numerical studies are conducted to evaluate the noninvasive imaging method of temporal log-slope difference mapping (TLSDM). Emphasis is placed on the parametric examination of tumor's size, enhanced absorption contrast ratio, and embedment depth on the imaging quality and accuracy. It is found that the imaging quality and accuracy are predominantly determined by the tumor size and its embedment depth. The TLSDM method can detect a small tumor of 10mm in size when the tumor is embedded at a shallow depth down to 10mm. With decreasing tumor size and/or increasing embedment depth, both image quality and accuracy worsen. The imaging method requires the enhanced absorption contrast ratio be 20:1 or above.