Welcome
Welcome to the website for the project "3D imaging of an unfertilised chicken egg using Optical tomography" carried out by Matthew Panayiotou in the academic year 2004-2005 at the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering at Univesity College London. On this website you can read the Project Outline and Progress Report that were subsmitted at various stages of the investigation. You can also download a copy of the Final Report, find out a bit about the people involved in the project and contact me via email or by signing the guestbook. What follows on this page is an overview of the project with some pictures of the constructed equipment and final reconstructed images.
Overview
As part of the continuing development of the chicken embryo animal model of infant hypoxic ischemia, three-dimensional images of unfertilised chicken eggs have been generated, for the first time, using optical tomography. The 32-channel time-resolved optical tomography system currently available at University College London was used in conjunction with a custom built MRI compatible holder, which coupled the optical fibres to the surface of the eggs. The holder as connected to the MONSTIR imaging system during one of the imaging sessions is shown below:
Preliminary measurements served to validate the holder with the imaging system and images were subsequently reconstructed using an egg shaped 3D finite-element-model mesh. Localised conditions of hypoxia within the eggs were simulated by the injection of a near-Infrared absorbing dye. The expected location of the dye within the images was simulated using available software. Images representing the distribution of absorption at 780nm clearly reveal the separation between egg white and egg yolk and exhibit greatest absorption at the location at which the dye was injected. The simulated location of the dye as well as the reconstructed absorption and scatter images are shown below. For a complete explanation of these images please see the Final report.
The outcome of this investigation lends momentum to the use of optical tomography for the investigation and development of the animal model and based on the results, it is recommended that future investigations move directly into the imaging of fertilised embryos either by means of optical tomography alone or by means of a combined optical tomography and MRI imaging system. Such a combined system will produce results of very high spatial and temporal resolution with the data from each imaging modality complementing the other and undoubtedly providing results of much interest and benefit.