Diffuse optical imaging or diffuse optical tomography 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.

Medical imaging | Neuroimaging