Advances in Monte Carlo Simulation for Light Propagation in Tissue

Abstract

Monte Carlo (MC) simulation for light propagation in tissue is the gold standard for studying the light propagation in biological tissue and has been used for years. Interaction of photons with a medium is simulated based on its optical properties. New simulation geometries, tissue-light interaction methods, and recording techniques recently have been designed. Applications, such as whole mouse body simulations for fluorescence imaging, eye modeling for blood vessel imaging, skin modeling for terahertz imaging, and human head modeling for sinus imaging, have emerged. Here, we review the technical advances and recent applications of MC simulation.

Photoacoustic imaging depth comparison at 532-, 800-, and 1064-nm wavelengths: Monte Carlo simulation and experimental validation

“…37 The light propagation in the simulation geometry is determined by the optical properties of the medium such as μ a , scattering coefficient (μ s ), scattering anisotropy (g), and refractive index (n). 38 Three different simulation geometries were used to compare the propagation of photons at different wavelengths. Figures 1(a)-1(c) illustrate the cross-sectional view of simulation geometries at y ¼ 0 plane, across xz axis.…”

Multidomain computational modeling of photoacoustic imaging: verification, validation, and image quality prediction

“…Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is the gold standard method for modeling light-tissue interactions in turbid media and has been previously applied to PAI. MC has been used to compare performances of different PAI device designs, 20,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] to evaluate target lesion visualization and detectability, 39,42 and to enable quantitative PAI. 43,44 Common tools for modeling acoustic wave propagation in tissue include Field II, 45 which has been used to simulate photoacoustic response and quantify spatial resolution of a proposed PAI system, 46,47 and k-Wave, 48,49 a popular open-source photoacoustic simulation toolbox for MATLAB used by several groups to study PAI systems.…”

A hybrid mesh and voxel based Monte Carlo algorithm for accurate and efficient photon transport modeling in complex bio-tissues

“…With the rapid emergence of powerful parallel computing platforms, especially those of graphics processing units (GPUs), the Monte Carlo method (MC) has been gaining popularity in light transport modeling within bio-tissues due to its high accuracy and scalability in computation [1,2]. As a stochastic solver to the radiative transfer equation, MC provides superior accuracy for general complex media, including low-albedo tissues where the diffusion approximation fails, such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain, lungs, and synovial fluid in the joints.…”

“…In the past years, considerable efforts have been invested to improve MC accuracy for handling complex tissue boundaries. A shape-based MC approach was proposed to improve modeling accuracy by considering parametrically defined 3-D shapes [8][9][10][11], which are largely limited to simple geometries such as spheres and cylinders [1]. A surface MC approach was explored in [12,13], inspired partly by contemporary computer graphic rendering techniques.…”