Phantom andin-vivoimaging using a Gen-2 hand-held optical imager: reflectance and transmission studies

A novel Gen-2 hand-held optical imager was developed with capabilities to contour to different tissue curvatures, perform simultaneous illumination and detection and imager large tissue surfaces. Experimental studies using cubical phantoms demonstrated that the imager can detect targets up to 2.5 cm and 5 cm deep via reflectance and transmission measurements, respectively. The target was also localized as regions of high absorption during multi-scan imaging of curved breast phantoms via both reflectance and transmission modes. Preliminary in-vivo breast imaging demonstrated that the target can be detected via varying the pressure applied during imaging, as observed from reflectance-based imaging studies on healthy adults with superficially placed target(s) in the intra-mammary fold.