1. The Transport Theory is used to describe the transfer of energy through tissue.

This theory
addresses wave propagation over a medium with a random distribution of scatterers. Three key
points of this theory system are:
a) It is based on statistical approximation of photon particle transport in multiple scattering
medium meaning the interaction of scattered light waves between neighboring scatterers is
considered.
b) There is a change in direction of photons due to reflection or refraction scattering off of
microscopic structures.
c) This model also neglects wave behavior (coherence, diffraction, polarization) and it
considers changes in energy due to incoming, outgoing, absorbed, emitted photons. In other
words, it considers photon energy and changes in photon energy in an infinitesimal volume,
dV.

Light interactions with tissue are very complex. However, since tissue is a dielectric medium,
whose refractive index is higher than that of air and has absorbing and scattering medium
(participating medium), it makes it a model of choice to examine light transport in tissue. The
propagation of light within tissue is governed by probable events such as absorption and
scattering which takes place within the tissue itself and reflection and transmission which takes
place at the boundaries of the tissue. Some optical properties of the tissue include, the
scattering coefficient, the absorption coefficient, the direction of scatter and the refractive
index. When light is incident on tissue, some photons are reflected off of the tissue. This is
known as specular reflection. Majority of the other photons would enter the tissue and
scattering would take place where photons bump into other particles causing a change in
direction of the photons, a single scattering event and multiple event scattering events take
place which leads to forward and back scattering occurring. This can cause diffuse reflectance.
Absorption also takes place, where the photon energy can be converted into heat (thermal
coagulation) or it can trigger a chemical reaction or cause fluorescence to occur. However, for
fluorescence to occur, there must be extrinsic or intrinsic chloroforms in the medium. There are
also other processes which may occur like, ablation which means there is a low penetration
depth and also the formation of acoustic waves.

2. The four processes that lead to the four (4) terms that contribute to the overall energy change
within the volume of interest are:
I. Divergence of light from volume – Divergence is a measure of the increase in the
diameter or the radius of the base perpendicular to the direction of propagation. When
dealing with a collimated being, the light rays are supposed to travel parallel to each
other which makes the divergence minimal since there is no increase in the diameter of
the ray in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the ray. Energy diverging
out of volume within differential solid angle 𝑑Ω around direction ŝ. This is an important
consideration especially when dealing with uncollimated sources of light. This results in
an energy decrease.
II. Scattering loss and absorption loss within the volume - Photons will be scattered out of
the volume so there will be a change in direction and energy. Photons will also be
absorbed in the volume causing more energy change within the volume. Energy will be
 lost due to light scattered out of the volume and due to light absorption taking place
within the volume. This results in an energy decrease.
III. Scattering from other directions into volume – Photons from outside will also be
scattered into the volume. These photons come from other scatterers into the volume.
The probability of photons within the differential sold angle 𝑑Ω’ around direction ŝ’
being scattered into direction ŝ must be considered. This will cause an energy increase.
IV. Internal light source – Light is generated within the volume. Photons of energy are
produced known as photon energy. This is where photoluminescence takes place within
the volume. This will cause an energy increase.

Basic equation of transport theory:

1∂ L ( r , ŝ , t )
c∂t
❑

= -ŝ ۰∇ L ( r , ŝ , t )−( μa+ μs ) L ( r , ŝ , t ) + μs ∫ L ( r , ŝ , t ) p(ŝ , ŝ ¿')d Ω ’+Q (r , ŝ , t) ¿

4π

Since there is no scattering, mu s ( μs) will be zero since it is a collimated source.