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. 1999 Jul-Aug;5(4):1200-1204.
doi: 10.1109/2944.796347.

Polarization Effects in Optical Coherence Tomography of Various Biological Tissues

Johannes F de Boer  1 , Shyam M Srinivas  1 , B Hyle Park  1 , Tuan H Pham  1 , Zhongping Chen  1 , Thomas E Milner  2 , J Stuart Nelson  1
Affiliations

Polarization Effects in Optical Coherence Tomography of Various Biological Tissues

Johannes F de Boer et al. IEEE J Sel Top Quantum Electron. 1999 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) was used to obtain spatially resolved ex vivo images of polarization changes in skeletal muscle, bone, skin and brain. Through coherent detection of two orthogonal polarization states of the signal formed by interference of light reflected from the biological sample and a mirror in the reference arm of a Michelson interferometer, the depth resolved change in polarization was measured. Inasmuch as any fibrous structure will influence the polarization of light, PS-OCT is a potentially powerful technique investigating tissue structural properties. In addition, the effects of single polarization state detection on OCT image formation is demonstrated.

Keywords: Biological tissues; biomedical imaging; birefringence; optical tomography; polarization.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic of the PS-OCT system. SLD: superluminescent diode. L: Lens. P: Polarizer. BS: Beam splitter. QWP: Quarter-wave plate. NDF: Neutral density filter. PBS: Polarizing beam splitter. PZT: Piezoelectric transducer. 2-D images were formed by lateral movement of the sample at constant velocity (x-direction), repeated after each longitudinal displacement (z-direction).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Upper panel shows OCT images. White lines are contours at −16 dB (white to gray transition) and −32 dB (gray to black transition) intensity levels, respectively. Lower panel shows PS-OCT images. White lines are contours at 30° (white to gray transition) and 60° (gray to black transition) phase retardation levels, respectively. The phase retardation above the sample surfaces was ≈45°, determined by an approximately equal noise level in each polarization channel. A: 1 mm × 1 mm image of ex vivo rat skeletal muscle. Three periods of the phase retardation can be observed in the PS-OCT image; such detail is not discernible in the OCT image. B: 1 mm × 1 mm image of ex vivo rat parietal skull. C: 1.2 mm × 1 mm image of ex vivo rat skin. PS-OCT images B and C show dark islands below the surface confined by the 60° phase contour line. D: 1.2 mm × 1 mm image of dissected ex vivo rat cerebral cortex. The birefringent region in the PS-OCT image is a strip of white matter, surrounded by gray matter.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
OCT and PS-OCT images generated from a single scan of rodent skin, three weeks post exposure to a 100 °C brass rod for 20 s. Image size is 4 mm × 1 mm. The six images display, respectively, in the left column from top to bottom, the sum of the reflected intensity detected by the detectors, the vertically polarized reflected intensity (detector 1) and the horizontally polarized reflected intensity (detector 2) gray-scale coded on a logarithmic scale, and, in the right column from top to bottom, the normalized Stokes parameters Q, U, and V gray scale coded from 1 to −1. White lines are contours at 1/3 (white to gray transition) and −1/3 (gray-to-black transition) values. The scan was made from normal (left) into thermal damaged skin with scar formation (right). Punch biopsy and histological evaluation of the imaged location indicate that the banded structure in the lower right half of the summed intensity image is muscle tissue.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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