An unambiguous derivation of the effective refractive index of biological suspensions and an extension to dense tissue such as blood

TL;DR

This paper provides a rigorous derivation of the van de Hulst formula for biological suspensions, extending its validity to dense tissues like blood, and offers practical methods to estimate and correct errors when the formula's assumptions are violated.

Contribution

It offers a new derivation of the van de Hulst formula applicable to dense biological suspensions, clarifies the conditions for its validity, and introduces correction methods for practical use.

Findings

The derivation shows the formula's validity for large, tenuous scatterers in dense suspensions.

Application to blood and tissue demonstrates the formula's extended applicability.

A simple correction method estimates errors when the formula's assumptions are not met.

Abstract

The van de Hulst formula provides an expression for the effective refractive index or effective propagation constant of a suspension of particles of arbitrary shape, size and refractive index in an optically homogeneous medium. However, its validity for biological matter, which often consists of very dense suspensions of cells, is unclear because existing derivations of the formula or similar results rely on far-field scattering and/or on the suspension in question being dilute. We present a derivation of the van de Hulst formula valid for suspensions of large, tenuous scatterers -- the type biological suspensions are typically made of -- which does not rely on these conditions, showing that they are not strictly necessary for the formula to be valid. We apply these results specifically to blood and epithelial tissue. Furthermore, we determine the true condition for the formula to be valid for these types of tissues. We finally provide a simple way to estimate -- and, more importantly, correct -- the error incurred by the van de Hulst formula when this condition is not met.