In vivo determination of the optical properties of muscles without the influence of a subcutaneous fat layer

The conventional time-resolved method cannot easily be applied to determination of tissue optical properties because of inhomogeneity of tissue structure. In this study, absorption and scattering coefficients of the muscle were determined by comparing results of in vivo experiments and those of Monte Carlo simulation in which influences of an overlying fat layer were taken into account. Mean values of absorption and scattering coefficients of the muscle measured on the forearm at 725 nm were 0.022 and 0.47 mm/sup -1/, respectively.