Monte Carlo simulation of skin multispectral autofluorescence

Abstract

This work is devoted to the simulation of human skin autofluorescence in different spectral ranges. Analytical review was performed for selecting the main endogenous fluorophores with the greatest contribution to the skin fluorescence: tryptophan, tyrosine, collagen, melanin, elastin, lipofuscin, protoporphyrin IX, NADH, FAD. It was necessary to set parameters for autofluorescence modeling, such as the absorption/emission spectra of fluorophores, molar concentration, molar extinction coefficient, and quantum yield. The six-layer skin model was designed in the TracePro software and autofluorescence was simulated when excited at different wavelengths in the middle UV (270-300 nm), near UV (330-360 nm) and visible (400-450 nm) spectral ranges. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results of other authors. The principal distinctive factor of this work is the simulation of the human skin autofluorescence excited in different spectral ranges.

Keywords

• autofluorescence
• Monte Carlo modeling
• skin model
• skin fluorophores
• optical diagnostics