Optical anisotropy composition of benign and malignant prostate tissues revealed by Mueller-matrix imaging.

A Mueller matrix imaging approach is employed to disclose the three-dimensional composition framework of optical anisotropy within cancerous biotissues. Visualized by the Mueller matrix technique spatial architecture of optical anisotropy of tissues is characterised by high-order statistical moments. Thus, quantitative analysis of the spatial distribution of optical anisotropy, such as linear and circular birefringence and dichroism, is revealed by using high-order statistical moments, enabling definitively discriminate prostate adenoma and carcinoma.

Embossed topographic depolarisation maps of biological tissues with different morphological structures.

Layered topographic maps of the depolarisation due to diffuse biological tissues are produced using a polarisation-holographic Mueller matrix method approach. Histological sections of myocardial tissue with a spatially structured optically anisotropic fibrillar network, and parenchymal liver tissue with a polycrystalline island structure are successfully mapped. The topography of the myocardium maps relates to the scattering multiplicity within the volume and the specific morphological structures of the biological crystallite networks.