Efficient and Accurate Simulation of Light Propagation in Bio-Tissues Using the Three-Dimensional Geometric Monte Carlo Method

Abstract

Energy deposition in bio-tissues is a prerequisite for the calculation of heat transfer during laser–tissue interactions. We calculated light propagation and energy deposition in bio-tissues using a three-dimensional (3D) geometric Monte Carlo (MC) method, which uses the mathematically defined geometrical relationship between photons and tissue structures. We demonstrated the accuracy and efficiency of this method compared with the voxel-based MC method: it was 25 times faster than the VMC with a voxel size of 10 µm. Results of light propagation in the multi-coaxial vessel cluster proved that an artificial vessel distribution could be used to predict the absorption characteristics in real tissues with a similar blood volume fraction.