Low-coherence optical tomography in turbid tissue: theoretical analysis.

On the basis of white-light interferometry and statistical optics, a theoretical model for low-coherence optical tomography is presented that establishes the relation of interference modulation with path-length-resolved reflectance and that can provide analytical expressions and numerical solutions by means of a Fourier transform. The Monte Carlo technique is used to simulate the path-length-resolved reflectance from different multilayer tissue phantoms. Theoretical analyses and preliminary experimental results suggest that, unlike time-resolved spectroscopy, low-coherence optical tomography detects the local relative variations of path-length-resolved reflectance from the turbid tissues.