Combined Monte Carlo and path-integral method for simulated library of time-resolved reflectance curves from layered tissue models

Abstract

Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are considered the gold standard for mathematical description of photon transport in tissue, but they can require large computation times. Therefore, it is important to develop simple and efficient methods for accelerating MC simulations, especially when a large library of related simulations is needed. A semi-analytical method involving MC simulations and a path-integral (PI) based scaling technique generated time-resolved reflectance curves from layered tissue models. First, a zero-absorption MC simulation was run for a tissue model with fixed scattering properties in each layer. Then, a closed-form expression for the average classical path of a photon in tissue was used to determine the percentage of time that the photon spent in each layer, to create a weighted Beer-Lambert factor to scale the time-resolved reflectance of the simulated zero-absorption tissue model. This method is a unique alternative to other scaling techniques in that it does not require the path length or number of collisions of each photon to be stored during the initial simulation. Effects of various layer thicknesses and absorption and scattering coefficients on the accuracy of the method will be discussed.