Models for photon migration and optical properties of biological tissues

Solutions of the diffusion equation for the slab geometry, in which the refractive index mismatch between the diffusing and the surrounding medium is taken into account, are presented. These solutions have been used to implement fitting procedures in order to obtain the optical properties of biological tissues from measurements of diffused light. Comparisons with Monte Carlo results have been used to determine the range of validity of the diffusion approximation. Results of different imaging methods applied to simulated data are also presented together with a description of the Monte Carlo code used.