Extinction and absorption coefficients and scattering phase functions of human tissues in vitro.

Optical properties of different human tissues in vitro have been evaluated by measuring extinction and absorption coefficients at 635- and 515-nm wavelengths and a scattering angular dependence at 635 nm. Extinction was determined by the on-axis attenuation of light transmitted through sliced specimens of various thicknesses. The absorption coefficient was determined by placing samples into an integrating sphere. The Henyey-Greenstein function was used for fitting experimental data of the scattering pattern. The purpose of this work was to contribute to the study of light propagation in mammalian tissues. The results show that, for the investigated tissues, extinction coefficients range from ~200 to 500 cm(-1) whereas absorption coefficients, depending on wavelength, vary from 0.2 to 25 cm(-1). Scattering is forward peaked with an average cosine of ~0.7.