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Light propagation in two-layered turbid media that have an infinitely thick second layer is investigated with time-resolved reflectance. We used a solution of the diffusion equation for this geometry to show that it is possible to derive the absorption and the reduced scattering coefficients of both layers if the relative reflectance is measured in the time domain at two distances and if the thickness of the first layer is known. Solutions of the diffusion equation for semi-infinite and homogeneous turbid media are also applied to fit the reflectance from the two-layered turbid media in the time and the frequency domains. It is found that the absorption coefficient of the second layer can be more precisely derived for matched than for mismatched boundary conditions. In the frequency domain, its determination is further improved if phase and modulation data are used instead of phase and steady-state reflectance data. Measurements of the time-resolved reflectance were performed on solid two-layered tissue phantoms that confirmed the theoretical results.

We have investigated the possibility of determining the optical coefficients of muscle in the extremities with in vivo time-resolved reflectance measurements using a layered model. A solution of the diffusion equation for two layers was fitted to three-layered Monte Carlo calculations simulating the skin, the subcutaneous fat and the muscle. Relative time-resolved reflectance data at two distances were used to derive the optical coefficients of the layers. We found for skin and subcutaneous fat layer thicknesses (l2) of up to 10 mm that the estimated absorption coefficients of the second layer of the diffusion model have differences of less than 20% compared with those of the muscle layer of the Monte Carlo simulations if the thickness of the first layer of the diffusion model is also fitted. If l2 is known, the differences are less than 5%, whereas the use of a semi-infinite model delivers differences of up to 55%. Even if l2 is only approximately known the absorption coefficient of the muscle can be determined accurately. Experimentally, the time-resolved reflectance was measured on the forearms of volunteers at two distances from the incident beam by means of a streak camera. The thicknesses of the tissues involved were determined by ultrasound. The optical coefficients were derived from these measurements by applying the two-layered diffusion model, and results in accordance with the theoretical studies were observed.

Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy has the potential to provide more information for the detection of early cancer than continuous wave spectroscopy. A new optical fiber-based spectrofluorometer for time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy of biological tissue during clinical endoscopy is presented. The apparatus is based on a nitrogen laser pumping a dye laser as excitation source and a streak camera coupled with a spectrograph as time-resolved spectrometer. The excitation and fluorescence light is carried by an optical fiber to the tissue under investigation and back to the detector, respectively. This optical fiber can be inserted into the biopsy channel of a conventional endoscope. Hence, the apparatus can be used to perform in situ tissue characterization during endoscopy. The instrument enables the measurement of the decays of entire fluorescence spectra within 15 s with a dynamic range of the spectro-temporal images of up to three orders of magnitude. Luminescence lifetimes from the sub ns up to the ms range can be measured. Spectral and temporal resolution, sensitivity, and dynamic range of the instrumentation were determined. The accuracy of the apparatus was checked by the measurement of the fluorescence lifetimes of various fluorophores with known lifetimes. For the first time, two-dimensional time-resolved spectra with sub-ns temporal resolution of tissue fluorescence of the human bladder, the bronchi, and the esophagus taken during endoscopy are presented as a demonstration of performance of the instrumentation. The excitation wavelengths were 337 nm in the case of the bladder and the esophagus and 480 nm in the case of the bronchi. Lifetime contrasts between normal and neoplastic tissue were found in all three organs. The spectral analysis of the fluorescence decays showed that the fluorescence between 370 and 490 nm, excited at 337 nm, consisted in several overlapping spectra. In the case of the esophagus, the contrast between normal and tumoral tissue was inverse in two different spectral bands proving the importance of the choice of the appropriate spectral range for time-resolved autofluorescence measurements for an optimal contrast. The in vivo fluorescence decay of the photosensitizers 5-aminolevulinic acid hexylester hydrochloride-induced protoporphyrin IX was measured in the human bladder and found to be mono-exponential with a lifetime of 15.9 (±1.2) ns. An in vivo fluorescence lifetime of 8.5 (±0.8) ns was found in the case of the photosensitizer 5, 10, 15, 20-tetra(m-hydroxyphenyl)chlorin (mTHPC) in the esophagus.