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Advances in the simulation of light–tissue interactions in biomedical engineering

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Abstract

Monte Carlo (MC) simulation for light propagation in scattering and absorbing media is the gold standard for studying the interaction of light with biological tissue and has been used for years in a wide variety of cases. The interaction of photons with the medium is simulated based on its optical properties and the original approximation of the scattering phase function. Over the past decade, with the new measurement geometries and recording techniques invented also the corresponding sophisticated methods for the description of the underlying light–tissue interaction taking into account realistic parameters and settings were developed. Applications, such as multiple scattering, optogenetics, optical coherence tomography, Raman spectroscopy, polarimetry and Mueller matrix measurement have emerged and are still constantly improved. Here, we review the advances and recent applications of MC simulation for the active field of the life sciences and the medicine pointing out the new insights enabled by the theoretical concepts.

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Fig. 1

Reproduced from [17], with permission

Fig. 2

Reproduced with permission from [35], [OSA Publishing]

Fig. 3

Reproduced from [49], with permission

Fig. 4

Reproduced from [50], with permission

Fig. 5

Reproduced with permission from Ref. [62], [OSA]

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Funding

The State task of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (Project # 3.5022.3017/8.9). B.R. acknowledges funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy within the Cluster of Excellence PhoenixD (EXC 2122).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Amur State University, Ignat’evskoe shosse 21, Blagoveshchensk, Russia, 675027

    Ilya Krasnikov & Alexey Seteikin

  2. Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, A. Nevskogo Str. 14, Kaliningrad, Russia, 236041

    Ilya Krasnikov & Alexey Seteikin

  3. Hannover Centre for Optical Technologies, Nienburger Straße 17, 30167, Hannover, Germany

    Bernhard Roth

  4. Cluster of Excellence PhoenixD, Leibniz University Hannover, Welfengarten 1, 30167, Hannover, Germany

    Bernhard Roth

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  1. Ilya Krasnikov
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  2. Alexey Seteikin
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Correspondence to Alexey Seteikin.

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Krasnikov, I., Seteikin, A. & Roth, B. Advances in the simulation of light–tissue interactions in biomedical engineering. Biomed. Eng. Lett. 9, 327–337 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-019-00123-x

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