Transillumination imaging performance: spatial resolution simulation studies.

Monte Carlo calculations were used to simulate the propagation of visible and near-infrared light through homogenous tissue in order to quantitate the potential spatial resolution performance for transillumination imaging. Specifically, the relative effectiveness of coaxial collimation and time of flight (TOF) detection for improving spatial resolution was investigated. The results demonstrate that significant improvements in spatial resolution can be achieved through these techniques, with TOF methods offering superior performance for a given level of detected signal intensity.