Significance: Pharmacokinetic parametric images in dynamic fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) can describe three-dimensional (3D) physiological and pathological information inside biological tissues, potentially providing quantitative assessment tools for biological research and drug development.

Aim: In vivo imaging of the liver tumor with pharmacokinetic parametric images from dynamic FMT based on the differences in metabolic properties of indocyanine green (ICG) between normal liver cells and tumor liver cells inside biological tissues.

Approach: First, an orthotopic liver tumor mouse model was constructed. Then, with the help of the FMT/computer tomography (CT) dual-modality imaging system and the direct reconstruction algorithm, 3D imaging of liver metabolic parameters in nude mice was achieved to distinguish liver tumors from normal tissues. Finally, pharmacokinetic parametric imaging results were validated against in vitro anatomical results.

Results: This letter demonstrates the ability of dynamic FMT to monitor the pharmacokinetic delivery of the fluorescent dye ICG in vivo, thus, enabling the distinction between normal and tumor tissues based on the pharmacokinetic parametric images derived from dynamic FMT.

Conclusions: Compared with CT structural imaging technology, dynamic FMT combined with compartmental modeling as an analytical method can obtain quantitative images of pharmacokinetic parameters, thus providing a more powerful research tool for organ function assessment, disease diagnosis and new drug development.