Medical applications of reflectance spectroscopy in the diffusive and sub-diffusive regimes

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is a widely used technique for medical applications that may analyze the optical characteristics of biological tissues. By using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, different tissue types can be distinguished based on specific changes on reflected light spectrum that are a result of differences on a molecular level between compared tissues. Identification of the structural features of tissue can be performed by applying diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and the spectra obtained from this technique could provide important diagnostic information about the tissue morphology and physiology. Moreover, different tissue types can be classified using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, during surgery on the basis of their optical properties that are related to the tissue morphology and constituents. In recent years, several research groups have been shown the feasibility of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy in discriminating benign and malignant tissue, and thus making it a good competitor for margin assessment. Therefore, the diffuse reflectance spectroscopy has the possibility to become an important optical means for disease diagnosis, treatment and prognosis monitoring. This review represents a summary of the literature on diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and its important clinical applications.