Imaging the Human Thyroid Using Three-Dimensional Diffuse Optical Tomography: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Thyroid cancer is usually diagnosed by ultrasound imaging and fine-needle aspiration biopsy. However, diagnosis of follicular thyroid carcinomas (FTC) is difficult because FTC lacks nuclear atypia and a consensus on histological interpretation. Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) offers the potential to diagnose FTC because it can measure tumor hypoxia, while image reconstruction of the thyroid is still challenging mainly due to the complex anatomical features of the neck. In this study, we attempted to solve this issue by creating a finite element model of the human neck excluding the trachea (a void region). By reconstruction of the absorption coefficients at three wavelengths, 3D tissue oxygen saturation maps of the human thyroid are obtained for the first time by DOT.