Diffuse optical imaging

Diffuse optical imaging (DOI) or diffuse optical tomography (DOT) is a medical imaging modality which uses near infrared light to generate images of the body. The technique measures the optical absorption of haemoglobin, and relies on the absorption spectrum of haemoglobin varying with its oxygenation status. Typical applications include rapid 2D optical topographic imaging of the evoked response following brain activity and tomographic reconstruction of an entire 3D volume of tissue to diagnose breast cancer or neonatal brain haemorrhage. Its key advantages over other imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, electroencephalography, and magnetoencephalography are that it's portable and non-invasive.