Handbook of Biomedical Optics

Reectance Spectroscopy 123

6.4 Critical Discussion

In this section, we discuss four major areas in which studies

evaluating the application of RS to tissue diagnostics can be

improved. We concentrate most of our discussion points on

those tissues in which the most extensive research has been per-

formed, the cervix, breast, and oral cavity.

6.4.1 Discriminating Disease in the Context

of Normal Tissue Variations

e normal variations of biological tissue must be carefully

assessed and taken into account when evaluating the perfor-

mance of spectroscopic diagnostic algorithms. If these intrinsic

tissue variations are not considered, ...