An efficient Jacobian reduction method for diffuse optical image reconstruction.

Model based image reconstruction in Diffuse Optical Tomography relies on both the numerical accuracy of the forward model as well as the computational speed and efficiency of the inverse model. Most model based image reconstruction algorithms rely on Newton type inversion methods, whereby the inverse of a large Jacobian is approximated. In this work we present an efficient Jacobian reduction method which takes into account the total sensitivity of the imaging domain to the measured boundary data. It is shown using numerical and phantom data that by removing regions within the inverse model whose contribution to the measured data is less than 1%, it has no significant effect upon the estimated inverse problem, but does provide up to a 14 fold improvement in computational time.