title: Analysis of scattering statistics and governing distribution functions in optical coherence tomography.
abstract: The probability density function (PDF) of light scattering intensity can be used to characterize the scattering medium. We have recently shown that in optical coherence tomography (OCT), a PDF formalism can be sensitive to the number of scatterers in the probed scattering volume and can be represented by the K-distribution, a functional descriptor for non-Gaussian scattering statistics. Expanding on this initial finding, here we examine polystyrene microsphere phantoms with different sphere sizes and concentrations, and also human skin and fingernail in vivo. It is demonstrated that the K-distribution offers an accurate representation for the measured OCT PDFs. The behavior of the shape parameter of K-distribution that best fits the OCT scattering results is investigated in detail, and the applicability of this methodology for biological tissue characterization is demonstrated and discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto Medical Discovery Tower, 101 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada.
authors.forename: Mitsuro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sugita
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto Medical Discovery Tower, 101 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weatherbee
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave West, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada.
authors.forename: Kostadinka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bizheva
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto Medical Discovery Tower, 101 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto Medical Discovery Tower, 101 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada; Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, 610 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 2M9, Canada; Division of Biophysics and Bioimaging, Ontario Cancer Institute/University Health Network, 101 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7 Canada.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vitkin
keywords: (170.0170) Medical optics and biotechnology; (170.4500) Optical coherence tomography; (170.4580) Optical diagnostics for medicine