Abstract
We study light propagation in tissues using the theory of radiative transport. In particular, we study the case in which there is both forward-peaked and large-angle scattering. Because this combination of the forward-peaked and large-angle scattering makes it difficult to solve the radiative transport equation, we present a method to construct approximations to study this problem. The delta-Eddington and Fokker-Planck approximations are special cases of this general framework. Using this approximation method, we derive two new approximations: the Fokker-Planck-Eddington approximation and the generalized Fokker-Planck-Eddington approximation. By computing the transmittance and reflectance of light by a slab we study the performance of these approximations. © 2008 Optical Society of America.
