Abstract

Tissue optical properties are essential information in order to develop and optimize therapeutic and diagnostic applications of light in medicine. The development of a noninvasive and rapid approach to quantify these properties has been the focus of research by many groups over the past few years. Measurement of spatially resolved diffuse reflectance or fluence rate is frequently used to noninvasively determine the in vivo optical properties of biological tissues using a video camera¹ or optical fibers². However, these approaches are limited to superficial applications such as skin. Internal organs such as the prostate generally are not candidates for this method.

© 1996 IEEE