Monte Carlo Methods for Simulation of Optical Coherence Tomography of Turbid Media

We describe two importance sampling techniques for a standard Monte Carlo (MC) method that could enable fast simulation of signals from optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging systems. These OCT signals are generated due to diffusive reflections from either multilayered or arbitrary shaped, turbid media, for example, tissue. Such signals typically consist of ballistic and quasi-ballistic components, of scattered photons inside the medium, in addition to photons that undergo multiple scattering. We show that MC simulation of these OCT signals using importance sampling reduces its computation time on a serial processor by up to three orders of magnitude compared to its corresponding standard implementation. Therefore, these importance sampling techniques enable practical simulation of OCT B-scans of turbid media, for example, tissue, using commonly available workstations