A review of polarization-based imaging technologies for clinical and preclinical applications

Abstract

Polarization-based imaging can provide new diagnostic capabilities in clinical and preclinical studies. Various methodologies of increasing complexity have been proposed by different groups in the last 30 years. In this review we focus on the most widely used methods in polarization imaging including co- and cross-polarized-based imaging, Mueller matrix imaging, and polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography, among others. This short primer in optical instrumentation for polarization-based imagery is aimed at readers interested in including polarization in their imaging processes.

Polarisation optics for biomedical and clinical applications: a review

“…Sample induced scattering is prevalent in biomedical imaging, particularly in tissues 16 , 20 , 22 , 23 . This introduces additional SOP modulations that affect diattenuation and retardance as well as depolarisation 16 , 22 , 23 .…”

“…Sample induced scattering is prevalent in biomedical imaging, particularly in tissues 16 , 20 , 22 , 23 . This introduces additional SOP modulations that affect diattenuation and retardance as well as depolarisation 16 , 22 , 23 . A complex scattering medium can often be modelled by several basic components, like spherical scatterers of different sizes 35 ; cylindrical rod-like scatterers with different orientational distributions 36 ; and birefringence for an interstitial medium 37 – 39 ; combinations of these features can all be adjusted to mimic the real object 36 , 40 – 42 .…”

“…It is worth noting that the use of biomedical polarimetry is expanding and has also been summarised in several recent reviews by Tuchin 22 , Ghosh & Vitkin 20 , Ramella-Roman et al 23 , Qi & Elson 24 , De Boer et al 34 , He et al 16 . They have demonstrated the fast progress of this technique in the biomedical and clinical fields.…”

“…While it is an insightful procedure for evaluating structural information of biomedical samples including tissues and cells 16 , it also introduces uncertainty in expected photon properties 22 . This characteristic largely hinders the development of modern tissue polarimetric techniques and related information analysis 20 , 22 , 23 . The turbidity of many tissue structures imposes randomness on the photons’ interaction processes, which complicates the detection and analysis of vectorial information 20 .…”

“…Neither the Stokes vector nor the Mueller matrix maintain absolute phase information, but have the advantage of being able to represent depolarisation 27 , 28 . This is often essential in biomedical polarimetry, whose applications normally involve scattering induced light depolarisation 20 – 23 . There exists an increasing trend in both modern ellipsometry and polarimetry to deal with increasingly complex media, moving from isotropic and homogeneous media towards anisotropic and inhomogeneous ones 20 – 31 .…”