Narrowband diffuse reflectance spectroscopy in the 900-1000†nm wavelength region to quantify water and lipid content of turbid media.

We report a narrow wavelength band diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (nb-DRS) method to determine water and fat ratios of scattering media in the 900-1000 nm range. This method was shown to be linearly correlated with absolute water and fat concentrations as tested on a set of turbid emulsion phantoms with a range of water and lipid compositions. Robustness to scattering assumptions was demonstrated and compared against measured scattering by a frequency-domain photon migration system. nb-DRS was also tested on ex-vivo porcine samples and compared against direct tissue water extraction by analytical chemistry methods. We speculate nb-DRS has potential applications in portable devices such as clinical and digital health wearables.