There is an ever increasing use of optical methods in medicine in the areas of diagnostics, therapy and surgery. Examples of diagnostic use are the monitoring of blood oxygenation and tissue metabolism 1,2,3, laser doppler flow measurement', pulse oximetry5, detection of cancer by fluorescence methods6" etc, and more recently various suggested techniques for optical imaging9,10,11,12. Therapeutic uses include applications in laser surgery, laser angioplasty and ablation of tumours and in Photodynamic Therapy (PDT)". For these applications, there is a need to know the optical properties of the tissues concerned, in order to interpret and quantify diagnostic data, and to predict light distribution and absorbed dose for therapeutic use.
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