| abstract |
An optical system for in vivo, non-invasive imaging of tissue change including an optical module, a spectrophotometer, and a processor. The optical module includes an array of input ports and detection ports located in a selected geometrical pattern to provide a multiplicity of arrayed source-detector pairs engaged directly with the subject. The spectrophotometer includes at least one light source constructed to introduce electromagnetic radiation of visible or infra-red wavelength into the examined tissue successively at the input ports, wherein the wavelength is sensitive to a constituent of the imaged tissue, and at least one detector constructed to detect, at the detection ports, radiation of the selected wavelength that has migrated in the tissue from respective input ports. The processor receives signals of the detected radiation from the detector means, and is constructed and arranged to create a defined spatial image of the tissue by effectively producing from signals from the multiplicity of photon migration paths in the tissue, a succession of data sets representing, from a selected view, a succession of spatial images of the tissue being stimulated and the tissue not being stimulated, and an image data set related to differences between data of the successive data sets of the stimulated and non-stimulated tissue. |