Maximum-A-Posteriori Estimation of Retinal Oxygen Tension Based on Photon Counting Statistics

The regularization of retinal oxygen tension estimation was previously proposed with an assumption that phosphorescence intensity images are corrupted by additive Gaussian noise. Based on this assumption, a regularized least-squares estimate has been shown to be better than a conventional least-squares estimation. However, this assumption is inconsistent with the acquisition process of phosphorescence intensity images acquired using an intensified charge-coupled device camera. Almost the entire acquisition process is governed by the natural aspects of photons. Therefore, a method based on photon counting statistics is more appropriate. In this study, we propose a regularized oxygen tension estimation method based on photon counting statistics and a phosphorescence lifetime imaging model.