Shen Yuanxing, Huang Rongrong, He Honghui, Liu Shaoxiong, Dong Yang, Wu Jian, Ma Hui
Guangdong Research Center of Polarization Imaging and Measurement Engineering Technology, Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Minimal Invasive Medical Technologies, Institute of Optical Imaging and Sensing, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Biomed Opt Express. 2020 Dec 9;12(1):211-225. doi: 10.1364/BOE.410989. eCollection 2021 Jan 1.
Polarization imaging techniques are emerging tools to provide quantitative information of anisotropic structures, such as the density and orientation distribution of fibers in tissue samples. Recently, it is found that when using Mueller matrix polarimetry to obtain the structural features of tissue samples, some information can be revealed by relatively low-resolution polarization parameter images. Thus, to analyze what kinds of anisotropic optical and structural information contained in high-resolution polarization images are preserved in low-resolution ones, here we carry out a comparative study of the influence of imaging resolution on the Mueller matrix derived linear retardance parameters. We measure the microscopic Mueller matrix of human healthy breast duct tissues and ductal carcinoma (DCIS) tissues, which have distinct typical fibrous structures, using objectives with different numerical aperture. Then we quantitatively compare a group of image texture feature parameters of the linear retardance parameters images under high and low imaging resolutions. The results demonstrate that the fibers density information contained in the texture features of linear retardance parameter image are preserved well with the decline of imaging resolution. While for the azimuthal orientation parameter which closely related to the spatial location, we still need high imaging resolution to obtain quantitative structural information. The study provides an important criterion to decide which information of fibrous structures can be extracted accurately using transmission Mueller matrix microscope with low numerical aperture objectives.
偏振成像技术是一种新兴工具，可用于提供各向异性结构的定量信息，例如组织样本中纤维的密度和取向分布。最近发现，在使用穆勒矩阵偏振测量法获取组织样本的结构特征时，一些信息可以通过分辨率相对较低的偏振参数图像揭示出来。因此，为了分析高分辨率偏振图像中包含的哪些各向异性光学和结构信息在低分辨率图像中得以保留，我们在此对成像分辨率对从穆勒矩阵导出的线性延迟参数的影响进行了比较研究。我们使用具有不同数值孔径的物镜测量具有明显典型纤维结构的人类健康乳腺导管组织和导管原位癌（DCIS）组织的微观穆勒矩阵。然后，我们定量比较了高、低成像分辨率下线性延迟参数图像的一组图像纹理特征参数。结果表明，随着成像分辨率的降低，线性延迟参数图像纹理特征中包含的纤维密度信息得到了很好的保留。而对于与空间位置密切相关的方位角取向参数，我们仍然需要高成像分辨率来获取定量结构信息。该研究为确定使用低数值孔径物镜的透射式穆勒矩阵显微镜能够准确提取哪些纤维结构信息提供了重要标准。
