Effect of dependent scattering on the optical properties of Intralipid tissue phantoms

The calibration of optical tissue-simulating phantoms remains an open question in spite of the many techniques proposed for accurate measurements of optical properties. As a consequence, a reference phantom with well known optical properties is still missing. As a first step towards a reference phantom we have recently proposed to use dilutions of Intralipid 20%. In this paper we discuss a matter that is commonly ignored when dilutions are prepared, i.e., the possibility of deviations from the simple linear relationships between the optical properties of the dilution and the Intralipid concentration due to the effects of dependent scattering. The results of an experimental investigation showed that dependent scattering does not affect absorption. As for the reduced scattering coefficient the effect can be described adding a term proportional to the square of the concentration. However, for concentrations of interest for tissue optics deviations from linearity remain within about 2%. The experimental investigation also showed that the microphysical properties of Intralipid are not affected by dilution. These results show the possibility to easily obtain a liquid diffusive phantom whose optical properties are known with error smaller than about 1%. Due to the intrinsic limitations of the different techniques proposed for measuring the optical properties it seems difficult to obtain a similar accuracy for solid phantoms.