Finite element simulation of light transfer in turbid media under structured illumination

The spatial-frequency domain (SFD) imaging technique allows us to estimate the optical properties of biological tissues in a wide field of view. The technique is, however, prone to error in measurement because the two crucial assumptions used for deriving the analytical solution to the diffusion approximation cannot be met perfectly in practical applications. This research mainly focused on modeling light transfer in turbid media under the normal incidence of structured illumination using the finite element method (FEM). Finite element simulations were performed for 50 simulation samples with different combinations of optical absorption and scattering coefficients for varying spatial frequencies, and the results were then compared with the analytical method and Monte Carlo simulation. Relationships between diffuse reflectance and dimensionless absorption and dimensionless scattering coefficients were investigated. The results indicated that the FEM provided reasonable results for diffuse reflectance, compared with the analytical method. Both the FEM and the analytical method overestimated the reflectance for μ_tr/f_x values of greater than 2 and underestimated the reflectance for μ_tr/f_x values of smaller than 2. Larger values of μs'/μ_a yielded better diffuse reflectance estimations than did those of smaller than 10. The reflectance increased nonlinearly with the dimensionless scattering, whereas the reflectance decreased linearly with the dimensionless absorption. It was also observed that diffuse reflectance was relatively stable and insensitive to μs' when the dimensionless scattering was larger than 50. Overall results demonstrate that the FEM is effective for modeling light transfer in turbid media and can be used to explore the effects of crucial parameters for the SFD imaging technique.