Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, London, UK.
Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK.
J Biophotonics. 2018 Apr;11(4):e201700139. doi: 10.1002/jbio.201700139. Epub 2018 Jan 17.
Tissue-depolarization and linear-retardance are the main polarization characteristics of interest for bulk tissue characterization, and are normally interpreted from Mueller polarimetry. Stokes polarimetry can be conducted using simpler instrumentation and in a shorter time. Here, we use Stokes polarimetric imaging with circularly polarized illumination to assess the circular-depolarization and linear-retardance properties of tissue. Results obtained were compared with Mueller polarimetry in transmission and reflection geometry, respectively. It is found that circular-depolarization obtained from these 2 methods is very similar in both geometries, and that linear-retardance is highly quantitatively similar for transmission geometry and qualitatively similar for reflection geometry. The majority of tissue circular-depolarization and linear-retardance image information (represented by local image contrast features) obtained from Mueller polarimetry is well preserved from Stokes polarimetry in both geometries. These findings can be referred to for further understanding tissue Stokes polarimetric data, and for further application of Stokes polarimetry under the circumstances where short acquisition time or low optical system complexity is a priority, such as polarimetric endoscopy and microscopy.
组织去极化和线性延迟是体组织特征描述的主要偏振特性，通常可从穆勒偏振测量中进行解释。斯托克斯偏振测量可以使用更简单的仪器并在更短的时间内进行。在这里，我们使用圆偏振光照明的斯托克斯偏振成像来评估组织的圆去极化和线性延迟特性。分别在透射和反射几何结构中比较了从这两种方法获得的结果。结果发现，这两种几何结构中，从这两种方法获得的圆去极化非常相似，并且对于透射几何结构，线性延迟具有高度定量相似性，对于反射几何结构则具有定性相似性。从穆勒偏振测量中获得的大多数组织圆去极化和线性延迟图像信息（由局部图像对比特征表示）在这两种几何结构中都可以很好地从斯托克斯偏振测量中保留下来。这些发现可用于进一步理解组织斯托克斯偏振数据，并在需要短采集时间或低光学系统复杂性的情况下进一步应用斯托克斯偏振测量，例如偏振内窥镜和显微镜。
