title: Transport calculations for light scattering in blood.
abstract: In vivo measurement of the oxygen saturation levels in blood may be obtained from relative amounts of backscattered monochromatic light at two different wavelengths, as measured with a fiber-optic catheter oximeter. Because of the short mean free path length of light in blood, the backscattering can be well approximated by a previously-derived, one-wavelength transport theory solution for the half-space searchlight problem. This solution, unlike simple diffusion approximations has the advantage that the boundary condition describing illumination of a localized area of blood by a monodirectional light beam can be rigorously satisfied. Sample calculations using the solution are compared with experimental values of the reflectance of blood.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008027:Light; D008433:Mathematics; D008722:Methods; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen