Numerical modeling of photon migration in human neck based on the radiative transport equation

TL;DR

This paper develops a higher order numerical scheme to solve the radiative transport equation for modeling photon migration in the human neck, aiding optical imaging for thyroid cancer diagnosis.

Contribution

It introduces a new higher order finite-difference and discrete-ordinate scheme for the time-dependent RTE, improving accuracy and efficiency in biomedical optical imaging simulations.

Findings

The scheme accurately matches analytical solutions in homogeneous media.

Photon migration exhibits complex behaviors due to diffusive reflections near the trachea.

Simulations demonstrate the scheme's applicability to realistic human neck models.

Abstract

Biomedical optical imaging has a possibility of a comprehensive diagnosis of thyroid cancer in conjunction with ultrasound imaging. For improvement of the optical imaging, this study develops a higher order scheme for solving the time-dependent radiative transport equation (RTE) by use of the finite-difference and discrete-ordinate methods. The accuracy and efficiency of the developed scheme are examined by comparison with the analytical solutions of the RTE in homogeneous media. Then, the developed scheme is applied to describing photon migration in the human neck model. The numerical simulations show complex behaviors of photon migration in the human neck model due to multiple diffusive reflection near the trachea.