Light scattering properties of bovine muscle tissue in vitro, a comparison of methods

We measured the light scattering properties of muscular tissue using several methods, and compared the obtained results. Calculation of the extinction coefficient by using collimated transmission measurements and applying Beer's law is not appropriate. Probably surface roughness of the sample disables the calculation of the extinction coefficient from such measurements. From angular intensity measurements we found a scattering asymmetry parameter g = 0.96. In fresh samples the optical diffusion constant D depends on the orientation with respect to the longitudinal direction of the muscular cells. From the D values we calculated s' perpendicular to the longitudinal direction as 0.19 mm(-1) (at 543 nm), 0.39 mm(-1) (at 594 nm) and 0.59 mm(-1) (at 632 nm). The values for D measured from samples that were frozen and thawed did not show dependence on orientation.