Abstract

In recent years considerable effort has been given to developing noninvasive diagnostic procedures which utilize light to penetrate optically turbid biological tissues. Among these are pulse oximetry¹,² and time-resolved absorption spectroscopy³–⁵ to assess regional blood oxygenation, laser Doppler techniques to measure peripheral blood flow,⁶ and imaging modalities to discern tumours or other tissue inhomogenities.⁷–⁹ These methods, which are directed towards the analysis of living tissues, rely upon photons which have migrated through a highly scattering tissue matrix before being re-emitted and detected at an accessible surface.

© 1992 Optical Society of America