A Monte Carlo-based model for steady-state diffuse reflectance spectrometry in human skin: estimation of carbon monoxide concentration in livor mortis

In terms of physics, the skin can be regarded as an optically turbid medium in which the light is mainly scattered by the collagen fibers, mitochondria and cell nuclei, whereas the absorption is determined by the content of reduced hemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin, bilirubin, and melanin. When the measuring geometry and the illumination spectrum are known, the optical characteristics of the skin can be approximately described by the diffusion and absorption coefficients. These values define the diffusion and absorption probability per unit distance traveled for each wavelength. Based on these parameters, a mathematical skin model was developed with the help of Monte Carlo simulations. By implementing the absorption coefficient of carbon monoxide hemoglobin (CO-Hb) into the skin model, the authors wanted to investigate whether this method is suitable to determine the CO-Hb concentration from spectral reflectance curves of livores. The investigations performed on 28 deaths from CO poisoning so far showed that this is generally possible. In almost all cases, the actual CO-Hb values could be estimated correctly by using the Monte Carlo simulations.