Propagation properties of 1300-nm light in blood-saline mixtures determined through optical coherence tomography - art. no. 686408

Establishing when the amount of recorded multiple scattered signal becomes dominant is important for various clinical applications that require optical coherence tomography imaging through a turbid environment such as blood. The profiles of detected signals obtained by compounding coherence tomography images of flowing blood-saline mixtures with various blood concentrations are analyzed. The scattering properties of the studied mixtures influence the corresponding profiles of the recorded signal. Monte Carlo simulations of light propagation through environments with various scattering coefficients are used to support and to explain the experimental data.