QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENT OF OPTICAL-PARAMETERS IN THE BREAST USING TIME-RESOLVED SPECTROSCOPY - PHANTOM AND PRELIMINARY IN-VIVO RESULTS

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES. Although many optical approaches have been i nvestigated to diagnose breast cancers, optical parameters have never been standardized in phantom experiments; thus, the detectabilities in the various approaches could not be compared. The authors measured op tical properties of the breast quantitatively using time-resolved refl ectance spectroscopy to optimize the optical condition of the phantom. METHODS. A time-correlated single-photon counting method was used to obtain time-response curves of a phantom and human breasts. The optica l parameters were analyzed by fitting the curves to the diffusion equa tion. RESULTS. The parameters could be quantified within approximately 10% error in the finite breast phantom. In vivo preliminary results s howed significant individual differences. CONCLUSIONS. The authors wer e able to measure the optical parameters quantitatively using time-res olved spectroscopy. This optical information will contribute to the in vestigation of photon migration in the breast.