Understanding the role of hemoglobin in altering multilayered tissue intrinsic fluorescence in the visible region using fiber optics

Extraction of intrinsic fluorescence in a turbid medium such as tissue is a challenging problem due to the various interrelationships between different constituents of tissue. If the fluorescence happens to be in the visible region, predominant absorption of hemoglobin can quench the emission making the intrinsic extraction and hence the actual measurement of the respective fluorophore concentration erroneous. This work explores to understand the effect of hemoglobin quenching in layered skin tissue phantoms. Monte Carlo simulations on layered phantoms were performed with varying concentrations of FAD (Flavin Adenine Dinucleotide) and hemoglobin and the results are correlated with experimental fluorescence measurements. © 2014 Copyright SPIE.