The influence of the blood vessel diameter on the full scattering profile from cylindrical tissues: experimental evidence for the shielding effect

Optical methods for detecting physiological state based on light–tissue interaction are noninvasive, inexpensive, simplistic, and thus very useful. The blood vessels in human tissue are the main cause of light absorbing and scattering. Therefore, the effect of blood vessels on light–tissue interactions is essential for optically detecting physiological tissue state, such as oxygen saturation, blood perfusion and blood pressure. We have previously suggested a new theoretical and experimental method for measuring the full scattering profile, which is the angular distribution of light intensity, of cylindrical tissues. In this work we will present experimental measurements of the full scattering profile of heterogenic cylindrical phantoms that include blood vessels. We show, for the first time that the vessel diameter influences the full scattering profile, and found higher reflection intensity for larger vessel diameters accordance to the shielding effect. For an increase of 60% in the vessel diameter the light intensity in the full scattering profile above 90° is between 9% to 40% higher, depending on the angle. By these results we claim that during respiration, when the blood‐vessel diameter changes, it is essential to consider the blood‐vessel diameter distribution in order to determine the optical path in tissues. A CT scan of the measured silicon‐based phantoms. The phantoms contain the same blood volume in different blood‐vessel diameters.