Development of a Multimodal Optical System for Quantitative Biological Tissue Characterization

Abstract

Rapid and accurate disease diagnosis is important to determine appropriate treatment methods in clinics. Optical properties of tissue, such as absorption and scattering coefficients, could be a useful marker as disease progression occurs structural and biochemical alterations of biological tissue, resulting in chances of its optical properties. In addition, optical imaging methods are usually cost-effective and safe compared to other medical imaging techniques; thus, optical imaging could be used as a versatile tool for disease diagnosis. In this study, we have developed a multimodal imaging system that combines hyperspectral imaging and spatial-frequency domain imaging techniques. The proposed optical system enables quantitative measurement of scattering and absorption coefficients in biological tissue. We demonstrated the capability of the proposed optical system in measuring optical properties by exploiting a tissue-mimicking phantom and color chart, indicating that it has potential as a useful tool for characterizing the optical properties of tissue.