Theoretical study of immersion optical clearing of blood in vessels at local hemolysis

Mie based theoretical analysis has been performed for investigation of the possibility of application of the plasma hemoglobin releasing due to local hemolysis for optical clearing of blood. The 30-40% reduction of the scattering coefficient of blood in the spectral range from 400 to 1000 nm with increase of degree of hemolysis (up to 20%) was shown. At the same time, the reduction of absorption coefficient of blood is localized mainly within the Soret band with maximum at 415 nm (similar to15%), the alpha-band at 540 nm and the beta-band at 577 nm (similar to10%) of oxyhemoglobin. In the spectral range from 700 to 1000 nm the decrease of absorption coefficient is less than 8%. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.