Experimental results for propagation of diffuse photon-density waves up to 1 GHz in a tissue-like medium containing an absorbing edge

Optical imaging in the near-infrared (NIR) region provides the possibility to detect and determine pathological changes in human tissue without the drawback of ionizing radiation and with little technical and financial effort. Especially in rheumatoid arthritis, imaging by optical tomography to detect early inflammations in joints has the potential to become a supportive tool to common imaging modalities. One way to enhance the resolution and specificity of optical tissue characterization is to use the frequency domain instead of DC intensity measurement. Intensity modulation of a light source leads to propagation of diffuse photon-density waves (PDW) through the tissue. In this study, we report basic experimental results on tissuelike phantoms to determine the optimal parameters for PDW-transillumination of finger joints. We used PDW with modulation frequencies from 100 MHz up to 1 GHz to scan across a tissuelike phantom containing an absorbing plane bounded by an edge. The geometrical extents of the phantoms are similar to human finger joints. We measure the transmitted PDW and show that amplitude and phase behaves at the edge as expected according to theoretical predictions. An increasing modulation frequency leads to increasing slope of the amplitude decay at the edge but decreasing signal-to-noise ratio. Even at 1 GHz, the edge is detectable.