METHOD AND AN ARRANGEMENT FOR THE DETERMINATION OF THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF A MULTI-LAYERED TISSUE

摘要

The present invention relates to a method and anapparatus for determining the optical properties of a multi-layeredtissue, which is a stratified structure with opticalproperties that may vary from one layer to the next. Morespecifically, the invention relates to a method for earlydetection and characterization of tumours in a multi-layeredtissue. "Optical properties" refer to absorption andscattering coefficients, and the asymmetry factor describingthe angular dependence of the scattered light. A radiativetransfer model pertaining to a coupled air/tissue system isused to provide algorithms for retrieving tissue opticalproperties and determining the location of tumours embedded ina multi-layered tissue. The tissue is illuminated bycollimated light, successively from several directions andwith several wavelengths, and light backscattered from thetissue in several directions is measured and used as input tothe radiative transfer model to determine tissue opticalproperties and possible tumour locations.