Measurement of optical properties of superficial tissue from time-resolved reflectance

The determination of the optical properties of biological tissue is very important for diagnostic spectroscopy and modelling of light propagation in tissues. Time-resolved measurement can determine the optical properties without removing a tissue sample from the living body however the volume of tissue sampled should be localised to improve the accuracy of the measurement. In this study, we investigate a method to measure the optical properties of superficial tissue from time-resolved reflectance of early-detected photons. The optical properties are determined by Monte Carlo look-up-table (MC-LUT) method. The transport scattering coefficient of the superficial tissue can be accurately determined from the time-resolved reflectance of early-detected photons whilst the absorption coefficient includes considerable error.