Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for determination of optical properties and chromophore concentrations of mice internal organs in the range of 350 nm to 1860 nm

The development of photomedical modalities for diagnostics and treatment has created a need for knowledge of the optical properties of the targeted biological tissues. These properties are essential to plan certain procedures, since they determine the light absorption, propagation and penetration in tissues. One way to measure these properties is based on diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). DRS can provide light absorption and scattering coefficients for each wavelength through a non-invasive, fast and in situ interrogation, and thereby tissue biochemical information. In this study, reflectance measurements of ex vivo mice organs were investigated in a wavelength range between 350 and 1860 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this range is broader than previous studies reported in the literature and is useful to study additional chromophores with absorption in the extended wavelength range. Also, it may provide a more accurate concentration of tissue chromophores when fitting the reflectance spectrum in this extended range. In order to extract these concentrations, optical properties were calculated in a wide spectral range through a fitting routine based on an inverse Monte-Carlo look-up table model. Measurements variability was assessed by calculating the Pearson correlation coefficients between each pair of measured spectra of the same type of organ.