MCDataset: a public reference dataset of Monte Carlo simulated quantities for multilayered and voxelated tissues computed by massively parallel PyXOpto Python package

SIGNIFICANCE: Current open-source Monte Carlo (MC) method implementations for light propagation modeling are many times tedious to build and require third-party licensed software that can often discourage prospective researchers in the biomedical optics community from fully utilizing the light propagation tools. Furthermore, the same drawback also limits rigorous cross-validation of physical quantities estimated by various MC codes. AIM: Proposal of an open-source tool for light propagation modeling and an easily accessible dataset to encourage fruitful communications amongst researchers and pave the way to a more consistent comparison between the available implementations of the MC method. APPROACH: The PyXOpto implementation of the MC method for multilayered and voxelated tissues based on the Python programming language and PyOpenCL extension enables massively parallel computation on numerous OpenCL-enabled devices. The proposed implementation is used to compute a large dataset of reflectance, transmittance, energy deposition, and sampling volume for various source, detector, and tissue configurations. RESULTS: The proposed PyXOpto agrees well with the original MC implementation. However, further validation reveals a noticeable bias introduced by the random number generator used in the original MC implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Establishing a common dataset is highly important for the validation of existing and development of MC codes for light propagation in turbid media.