Semi-empirical model of the effect of scattering on single fiber fluorescence intensity measured on a turbid medium

Quantitative determination of fluorophore content from fluorescence measurements in turbid media, such as tissue, is complicated by the influence of scattering properties on the collected signal. This study utilizes a Monte Carlo model to characterize the relationship between the fluorescence intensity collected by a single fiber optic probe (F-SF) and the scattering properties. Simulations investigate a wide range of biologically relevant scattering properties specified independently at excitation (lambda(x)) and emission (lambda(m)) wavelengths, including reduced scattering coefficients in the range mu(s)'(lambda(x)) is an element of [0.1-8]mm(-1) and mu(s)'(lambda(m)) is an element of [0.25-1] x mu(s)'(lambda(x)). Investigated scattering phase functions (P(theta)) include both Henyey-Greenstein and Modified Henyey-Greenstein forms, and a wide range of fiber diameters (d(f) is an element of [0.2-1.0] mm) was simulated. A semi-empirical model is developed to estimate the collected F-SF as the product of an effective sampling volume, and the effective excitation fluence and the effective escape probability within the effective sampling volume. The model accurately estimates F-SF intensities (r=0.999) over the investigated range of mu(s)'(lambda(x)) and mu(s)'(lambda(m)), is insensitive to the form of the P(theta), and provides novel insight into a dimensionless relationship linking F-SF measured by different d(f). (C) 2011 Optical Society of America