Table 1.

DOT-MRI reconstructed optical properties. Expected and reconstructed ${\mu }_{\mathrm{a}}$ for the spatially unconstrained, hard-prior, and soft-prior DOT reconstructions in both the background and target regions, as well as the bulk absolute optical property measurement by the TD system. Note that the reconstructed contrast is unlikely to ever fully reach the expected 4∶1 value, which represents the ratio of target to background ${\mu }_{\mathrm{a}}$, due to the broadening of the reconstructed target. Thus, unconstrained and soft-prior reconstructions both demonstrate reasonably good contrast.

	${\mu }_{\mathrm{a}} \hspace{0.17em}\mathrm{at}\hspace{0.17em}785\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\mathrm{nm}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}({\mathrm{cm}}^{-1})$
	Average background	Maximum target	Contrast
Expected	0.05	0.20	4∶1
TD	0.053	—	—
Unconstrained	0.06	0.14	2.3∶1
Hard-prior	0.051	0.095	1.9∶1
Soft-prior	0.055	0.15	2.7∶1