Spatially-enhanced time-domain NIRS for accurate determination of tissue optical properties.

A multivariate method integrating time and space resolved techniques of near-infrared spectroscopy is proposed for simultaneously retrieving the absolute quantities of optical absorption and scattering properties in tissues. The time-domain feature of photon migration is advantageously constrained and regularized by its spatially-resolved amplitude patterns in the inverse procedure. Measurements of tissue-mimicking phantoms with various optical properties are analyzed with Monte-Carlo simulations to validate the method performance. The uniqueness, stability, and uncertainty of the method are discussed.