Experimental and computational studies of fluorescence lifetimes and spectra from scattering tissue phantoms

Summary form only given. Steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy has been investigated for disease detection and therapy, although absorption and scattering properties of tissue are known to affect intrinsic fluorescence intensity spectra. Time-resolved fluorescence studies indicate the potential use of intensity-independent lifetime spectroscopy for early cancer detection. For single fiber-optic probe geometries, we found distortions in measured fluorescence spectra from phantom media with varying optical scattering properties, while experimental and computational time-resolved studies showed invariant fluorescence lifetimes.