FLUORESCENCE MEASUREMENT AND OPTICAL IMAGING METHOD AND APPARATUS

摘要

A system and method for measuring fluorescence lifetimes utilizing a light source modulated with a code sequence to interrogate a sample of interest. The system is useful for studying the interaction of chemicals, biomolecules, and other substances. The fluorescence lifetime is used as an indicator of chemical binding and chemical environment. A system and method for measuring photons. The system produces an estimate of the distribution of flight times for photons traveling from the source to the detector. A system and method for optical lymph node mapping. A correlation of a photo-detector signal and a digital code sequence, used to modulated light signal, is calculated to produce an estimate of the distribution of flight times for photons traveling from a given source to a given detector. These distributions are used along with the measured amplitudes to reconstruct a map of contrast agent location within the tissue.