Abstract

The theoretical formulas presented in the previous paper (THD4) have been applied to the analysis of optical surface measurements made from living human and canine tissues. From measured in vivo surface intensity profiles Γ (ρ) of a variety of tissues, the characteristic absorption and scattering parameters were obtained using the theoretical formulas. By this approach, the depth dependence of photodynamic light dose in a patient’s metastatic melanoma was determined and corroborated by biopsy following treatment. Also, the empirical dependence on fiber separation of remote sensing of microcirculatory blood flow by laser Doppler velocimetry was found to be consistent with theory (mean path length as a function of ρ, 〈n|ρ〉〉. Finally, the analytical expression for Γ(n, ρ), the probability that a photon will be emitted at ρ after a path length n (or time t = n/c_i), was shown to predict the temporal distribution of emergent light at large ρ following picosecond laser pulses. The theoretical formulas thus are useful both in designing and interpreting noninvasive optical remote sensing measurements in vivo.

© 1988 Optical Society of America