Diffuse tomography of optical anisotropy of tumors and necrotic conditions of biological tissues

Abstract

An optical-physical system for extracting information about the fluctuations in the optical anisotropy of strongly scattering biological tissues is considered. A model is proposed for the formation of a depolarized background by birefringent and dichroic structures. An explicit form and symmetry of the completely depolarized component of the Mueller matrix is determined, a second-order differential matrix. An algorithm for the analytic determination of the distributions of elements of a second-order differential matrix is found. Interrelations between the magnitude of the elements of the second-order differential matrix and the fluctuations of the linear and circular birefringence-dichroism are obtained. The technique of diffuse tomography of an optically anisotropic component of strongly scattering biological tissues has been developed and experimentally tested. Maps of the distributions of the elements of the completely depolarized component of the Mueller matrix of the histological sections of the internal organs of the healthy and of the diabetic rats . The sensitivity, specificity and balanced accuracy of the method of diffuse tomography of the polycrystalline structure of tumors of the uterine wall and the degree of hemorrhage of the liver are determined.