Relationship between depth of a target in a turbid medium and fluorescence measured by a variable-aperture method

The relationship between the depth of a target in a turbid medium and the fluorescence ratio profile measured by use of illumination and collection apertures with variable diameters and the same optical path is shown. The forward problem was studied by Monte Carlo simulations of the propagation of fluorescent light through a theoretical model of a biologically relevant system for a range of aperture diameters. The curve of the fluorescence ratio as a function of the aperture diameter is characterized by a maximum/minimum point whose position shifts linearly with the depth of the target. Furthermore, the position of the maximum/minimum is observed to be insensitive to variations in the fluorescence efficiency and to the optical properties of the target layer or the entire medium. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.