Study of the Temperature Rise and Optical Penetration Depth in Human Photo-irradiated Tissue

Abstract

Optical radiation is widely applied in the treatment and diagnosis of different pathologies. If the power density of the incident light is sufficiently high to induce a significant temperature rise in the irradiated tissue, then it is also needed the knowledge of the thermal properties of the tissue for a complete understanding of the therapeutic effects. The thermal penetration depth of several human tissues has been measured applying the diffusion approximation of the radiative transfer equation for the distribution of optical radiation. The method, the experimental setup and the results are presented and discussed.