The project fouses in the development and clinical validation of advanced non-invasive optical methodologies for in-vivo diagnosis, monitoring, and prognosis of major neurological diseases (stroke, epilepsy, ischemia), based on diffuse optical imaging by pulsed near infrared light.
Established diagnostic imaging modalities (e.g. X-ray Computed Tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Positron Emission Tomography) provide 3D anatomical, functional or pathological information with spatial resolution in the millimeter range. However, these methods cannot be applied continuously or at the bedside. Diffuse optical imaging provides a valuable complementing tool to assess perfusion and blood oxygenation in brain tissue and their time evolution in a continuous or quasi-continuous manner.