Turbidity-free fluorescence spectroscopy of biological tissue

We present a method based on photon migration of extracting intrinsic fluorescence spectra from turbid media, using concomitantly measured fluorescence and reflectance. Intrinsic fluorescence is defined as fluorescence that is due only to fluorophores, without interference from the absorbers and scatterers that are present. Application to fluorescence spectra taken with tissue phantoms and human mucosal tissues demonstrates excellent agreement in both spectral line shape and intensity between the extracted and the directly measured intrinsic fluorescence spectra. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America.