ICE-FRONT PROPAGATION MONITORING IN TISSUE BY THE USE OF VISIBLE-LIGHT SPECTROSCOPY

For demonstrating that visible-light spectroscopy can be used for ice- front detection within freezing tissue, proton magnetic resonance imag es were correlated to time-evolving transmittance spectra as an ice fr ont progressed across a tissue sample. The experimental apparatus was designed to be compatible with magnetic resonance imaging, to produce one-dimensional freezing, and to allow both reflectance and transillum ination emitter-detector configurations about a normally progressing p lanar ice front in chicken muscle. This demonstration has potentially important medical applications in cryopreservation (freezing of biolog ical materials for preservation) and cryosurgery (destruction of tissu e by freezing). (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.