The propagation of optical radiation in tissue I. Models of radiation transport and their application

This paper is the first of two reviewing the propagation of electromagnetic radiation of wavelength 0.25–10μm in tissue. After a brief discussion of light/tissue interactions, a mathematical description of light propagation in terms of radiative transfer is developed. Formal solutions of the resulting equation are outlined, but the emphasis is on approximate method of solution—namely the discrete ordinates method, the technique of functional expansion and Monte Carlo simulation. The application of the simplest of these approximate methods, namely the 2-flux and diffusion models, to tissue optics is discussed in some detail. The second paper deals with the optical properties of tissue and the salient characteristics of light fluence distributions in these tissues.