Turbid medium polarimetry in biomedical imaging and diagnosis

Studies on polarization properties of scattered light from a random medium like biological tissue have received considerable attention because polarization can be used as an effective tool to discriminate against multiply scattered light (acting as a gating mechanism) and thus can facilitate high resolution imaging through tissue. Further, the polarization properties of scattered light from tissue contain wealth of morphological and functional information of potential biomedical importance. However, in a complex random medium like tissue, numerous complexities due to multiple scattering and simultaneous occurrences of many scattering and polarization events present formidable challenges both in terms of accurate measurements and in terms of analysis of the tissue polarimetry signal. Several studies have therefore been conducted in the recent past to develop appropriate measurement procedures, suitable light propagation models and polarimetry signal analysis methods to overcome these difficulties. In this review, we focus on some of the recent key developments in this area. Specifically, we describe variety of theoretical and experimental tools, illustrated with selected results, aimed at evaluating the prospect of turbid medium polarimetry for both biomedical imaging and diagnosis.

[1]  Dmitry A. Zimnyakov,et al.  Residual polarization of non-coherently backscattered linearly polarized light: the influence of the anisotropy parameter of the scattering medium , 2001 .

[2]  Andrew J Berger,et al.  Surface-sensitive polarized Raman spectroscopy of biological tissue. , 2005, Optics letters.

[3]  E. Sevick-Muraca,et al.  Quantitative optical spectroscopy for tissue diagnosis. , 1996, Annual review of physical chemistry.

[4]  Angelo Pierangelo,et al.  Mueller matrix imaging of human colon tissue for cancer diagnostics: how Monte Carlo modeling can help in the interpretation of experimental data. , 2010, Optics express.

[5]  J. Schmitt,et al.  Use of polarized light to discriminate short-path photons in a multiply scattering medium. , 1992, Applied optics.

[6]  Asima Pradhan,et al.  Anomalous behavior of depolarization of light in a turbid medium , 2006 .

[7]  A. Dogariu,et al.  Real-time measurement of the polarization transfer function. , 2001, Applied optics.

[8]  Zhongping Chen,et al.  Use of polar decomposition for the diagnosis of oral precancer. , 2007, Applied optics.

[9]  Gerard L Coté,et al.  Development and calibration of an automated Mueller matrix polarization imaging system. , 2002, Journal of biomedical optics.

[10]  Nirmalya Ghosh,et al.  Mueller matrix decomposition for polarized light assessment of biological tissues , 2009, Journal of biophotonics.

[11]  F. Dörr,et al.  Spectroscopy with Polarized Light , 1966 .

[12]  Nirmalya Ghosh,et al.  Polarimetry in turbid, birefringent, optically active media: A Monte Carlo study of Mueller matrix decomposition in the backscattering geometry , 2009 .

[13]  Xinxin Guo,et al.  Polarized light propagation in multiply scattering media exhibiting both linear birefringence and optical activity: Monte Carlo model and experimental methodology. , 2007, Journal of biomedical optics.

[14]  Gabriel Popescu,et al.  Tissue self-affinity and polarized light scattering in the born approximation: a new model for precancer detection. , 2006, Physical review letters.

[15]  G N Lewis,et al.  The Nature of Light. , 1926, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[16]  P. Aragona,et al.  Scanning laser polarimetry and confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy: technical notes on their use in glaucoma. , 2008, Progress in brain research.

[17]  B. Hooper.  Optical-thermal response of laser-irradiated tissue , 1996 .

[18]  K. Messmer,et al.  Orthogonal polarization spectral imaging: A new method for study of the microcirculation , 1999, Nature Medicine.

[19]  R. Azzam,et al.  Polarized light in optics and spectroscopy , 1990 .

[20]  A. de Martino,et al.  Forward and reverse product decompositions of depolarizing Mueller matrices. , 2007, Optics letters.

[21]  Asima Pradhan,et al.  Depolarization of light in a multiply scattering medium: effect of the refractive index of a scatterer. , 2004, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[22]  Bernard Le Jeune,et al.  Snapshot Mueller matrix polarimeter by wavelength polarization coding. , 2007, Optics express.

[23]  M. Moscoso,et al.  Influence of the relative refractive index on the depolarization of multiply scattered waves. , 2001, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[24]  S. Morgan,et al.  Effects of polarization state and scatterer concentration on optical imaging through scattering media. , 1997, Applied optics.

[25]  M Gu,et al.  Resolution improvement in microscopic imaging through turbid media based on differential polarization gating. , 1998, Applied optics.

[26]  Nirmalya Ghosh,et al.  Proof-of-principle demonstration of a Mueller matrix decomposition method for polarized light tissue characterization in vivo. , 2009, Journal of biomedical optics.

[27]  D. B. Rogozkin,et al.  Diffusion of circularly polarized light in a disordered medium with large-scale inhomogeneities , 1998 .

[28]  N. Ghosh,et al.  Depolarization of light in tissue phantoms - effect of a distribution in the size of scatterers. , 2003, Optics express.

[29]  C. Brosseau.  Fundamentals of Polarized Light: A Statistical Optics Approach , 1998 .

[30]  Antonello De Martino,et al.  Mueller polarimetric imaging system with liquid crystals. , 2004, Applied optics.

[31]  E. García-Caurel,et al.  Depolarizing Mueller matrices: how to decompose them? , 2008 .

[32]  David S. Kliger,et al.  CHAPTER 8 – Polarized Light in Condensed Phases , 1990 .

[33]  M. K. Swami,et al.  Polarized diffuse reflectance measurements on cancerous and noncancerous tissues , 2009, Journal of biophotonics.

[34]  S R Arridge,et al.  Optical imaging in medicine: I. Experimental techniques , 1997, Physics in medicine and biology.

[35]  S. Majumder,et al.  Depth-resolved fluorescence measurement in a layered turbid medium by polarized fluorescence spectroscopy. , 2005, Optics letters.

[36]  R R Alfano,et al.  Random walk of polarized light in turbid media. , 2005, Physical review letters.

[37]  A. Pierangelo,et al.  Ex-vivo characterization of human colon cancer by Mueller polarimetric imaging. , 2011, Optics express.

[38]  S. Jacques,et al.  Imaging superficial tissues with polarized light , 2000, Lasers in surgery and medicine.

[39]  H Radousky,et al.  Deep subsurface imaging in tissues using spectral and polarization filtering. , 2000, Optics express.

[40]  D. Goldstein,et al.  Mueller matrix dual-rotating retarder polarimeter. , 1992, Applied optics.

[41]  Nirmalya Ghosh,et al.  Mueller matrix decomposition for extraction of individual polarization parameters from complex turbid media exhibiting multiple scattering, optical activity, and linear birefringence. , 2008, Journal of biomedical optics.

[42]  S. Mohanty,et al.  Depolarization of autofluorescence from malignant and normal human breast tissues. , 2001, Applied optics.

[43]  J. Walsh,et al.  Comparative study of polarized light propagation in biologic tissues. , 2002, Journal of biomedical optics.

[44]  R. Azzam,et al.  Photopolarimetric measurement of the Mueller matrix by Fourier analysis of a single detected signal. , 1978, Optics letters.

[45]  T. Milner,et al.  Review of polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography and Stokes vector determination. , 2002, Journal of biomedical optics.

[46]  William S. Bickel,et al.  Stokes vectors, Mueller matrices, and polarized scattered light , 1985 .

[47]  A. De Martino,et al.  Polarimetric imaging for the diagnosis of cervical cancer , 2008 .

[48]  R. Chipman,et al.  Interpretation of Mueller matrices based on polar decomposition , 1996 .

[49]  S. Morgan,et al.  Surface-reflection elimination in polarization imaging of superficial tissue. , 2003, Optics letters.

[50]  Jessica C Ramella-Roman,et al.  Imaging skin pathology with polarized light. , 2002, Journal of biomedical optics.

[51]  Akira Ishimaru,et al.  Wave propagation and scattering in random media , 1997 .

[52]  Steven L. Jacques,et al.  Special Section Guest Editorial: Tissue Polarimetry , 1999 .

[53]  S. Majumder,et al.  Fluorescence depolarization in a scattering medium: effect of size parameter of a scatterer. , 2002, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[54]  S. Majumder,et al.  Polarized fluorescence spectroscopy of human tissues. , 2002, Optics letters.

[55]  R J McNichols,et al.  Optical glucose sensing in biological fluids: an overview. , 2000, Journal of biomedical optics.

[56]  Asima Pradhan,et al.  Recovery of turbidity free fluorescence from measured fluorescence: an experimental approach. , 2003, Optics express.

[57]  Ralf Lenke,et al.  Depolarization of backscattered linearly polarized light. , 2004, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[58]  David W. Robinson.  Polarized light—Fundamentals and applications , 1994 .

[59]  Xinxin Guo,et al.  Angular measurements of light scattered by turbid chiral media using linear Stokes polarimeter. , 2006, Journal of biomedical optics.

[60]  V. Černý,et al.  Orthogonal polarization spectral imaging. , 2007, Physiological research.

[61]  Schmitt,et al.  Depolarization of multiply scattered waves by spherical diffusers: Influence of the size parameter. , 1994, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics.

[62]  W. Steen.  Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles , 1999 .

[63]  Shovan K. Majumder,et al.  Simultaneous determination of size and refractive index of red blood cells by light scattering measurements , 2006 .

[64]  Ashleyj . Welch,et al.  Optical-Thermal Response of Laser-Irradiated Tissue , 1995 .

[65]  J. Walsh,et al.  Polarization discrimination of coherently propagating light in turbid media. , 1999, Applied optics.

[66]  Razvigor Ossikovski,et al.  Analysis of depolarizing Mueller matrices through a symmetric decomposition. , 2009, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[67]  L Wang,et al.  MCML--Monte Carlo modeling of light transport in multi-layered tissues. , 1995, Computer methods and programs in biomedicine.

[68]  Z. Kam,et al.  Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles , 1998 .

[69]  Paul J. Wu,et al.  Stokes polarimetry imaging of rat tail tissue in a turbid medium: degree of linear polarization image maps using incident linearly polarized light. , 2006, Journal of biomedical optics.

[70]  Edward Collett,et al.  Measurement of the four Stokes polarization parameters with a single circular polarizer , 1984 .