Optical characterization and imaging of biological tissues

The biological tissues exhibit their distinct optical characteristics. Their point-to-point compositional variation could either be determined by the optical parameters or reconstruction of the reflectance or tomographic images. The optical parameters, absorption and reduced scattering coefficients of goat tissues and human post-mastectomy breast specimen are determined by matching of their reflectance profile, as measured by multi-probe laser reflectometer, with that obtained by Monte Carlo simulation of optical scattering. The reflectance image of the mastectomy sample is reconstructed by measurement of reflectance at its various locations. The image thus obtained shows point-to-point variation in tissue composition. By multi-slice tomographic system the size and shape of the inclusions of different optical properties in a phantom made of goat fat are determined. By these procedures the structural variation in healthy and diseased tissues are determined and their relevance to early detection of tumour in tissues is discussed.