Abstract

In order to provide depth resolution for bulk tissue imaging experiments using fluorescence or absorption signals, we have designed an internal laser point spread technique. A laser light source has been imbedded in different depths into cardiac tissue and tissue phantoms, the signal on the tissue surface detected by a CCD detector. These measurements in combination with an analytic solution of the diffusion allow us to estimate optical properties of the investigated tissue. We show how this information provides the core of depth quantification of fluorescence and absorption measurements in bulk tissue and investigate experimentally the transition from single scattering to diffuse photon transport in cardiac tissue and suspensions of microscopic spherical particles that serve as model systems.

© 2001 OSA/SPIE