Effect of contact force on breast tissue optical property measurements using a broadband diffuse optical spectroscopy handheld probe.

We investigated the effects of operator-applied force on diffuse optical spectroscopy (DOS) by integrating a force transducer into the handheld probe. Over the typical range of contact forces measured in the breasts of eight patients, absorption and reduced scattering coefficients (650 to 1000 nm) variance was 3.1 +/- 1.