Bioluminescence tomography improves quantitative accuracy for pre-clinical imaging

A study is presented that demonstrates that bioluminescence tomography can reconstruct accurate 3D images of internal light sources placed at a range of depths within a physical phantom and that it provides more reliable quantitative data than standard bioluminescence imaging. Specifically, it is shown that when imaging sources at depths ranging from 5 to 15mm, estimates of total source strength are stable to within ±11% using tomography whilst values deduced by traditional methods vary 10-fold. Additionally, the tomographic approach correctly localises sources to within 1.5mm error in all cases considered.