Backscattering polarimetric imaging of the human brain to determine the orientation and degree of alignment of nerve fiber bundles.

The nerve fiber bundles constitutive of the white matter in the brain are organized in such a way that they exhibit a certain degree of structural anisotropy and birefringence. The birefringence exhibited by such aligned fibrous tissue is known to be extremely sensitive to small pathological alterations. Indeed, highly aligned anisotropic fibers exhibit higher birefringence than structures with weaker alignment and anisotropy, such as cancerous tissue. In this study, we performed experiments on thick coronal slices of a healthy human brain to explore the possibility of (i) measuring, with a polarimetric microscope the birefringence exhibited by the white matter and (ii) relating the measured birefringence to the fiber orientation and the degree of alignment. This is done by analyzing the spatial distribution of the degree of polarization of the backscattered light and its variation with the polarization state of the probing beam. We demonstrate that polarimetry can be used to reliably distinguish between white and gray matter, which might help to intraoperatively delineate unstructured tumorous tissue and well organized healthy brain tissue. In addition, we show that our technique is able to sensitively reconstruct the local mean nerve fiber orientation in the brain, which can help to guide tumor resections by identifying vital nerve fiber trajectories thereby improving the outcome of the brain surgery.

Polarimetric imaging in backscattering for the structural characterization of strongly scattering birefringent fibrous media.

Interpreting the polarimetric data from fiber-like macromolecules constitutive of tissue can be difficult due to strong scattering. In this study, we probed the superficial layers of fibrous tissue models (membranes consisting of nanofibers) displaying varying degrees of alignment. To better understand the manifestation of membranes' degree of alignment in polarimetry, we analyzed the spatial variations of the backscattered light's Stokes vectors as a function of the orientation of the probing beam's linear polarization. The degree of linear polarization reflects the uniaxially birefringent behavior of the membranes. The rotational (a-)symmetry of the backscattered light's degree of linear polarization provides a measure of the membranes' degree of alignment.

Reliability assessment for blood oxygen saturation levels measured with optoacoustic imaging.

SIGNIFICANCE: Quantitative optoacoustic (OA) imaging has the potential to provide blood oxygen saturation (SO2) estimates due to the proportionality between the measured signal and the blood's absorption coefficient. However, due to the wavelength-dependent attenuation of light in tissue, a spectral correction of the OA signals is required, and a prime challenge is the validation of both the optical characterization of the tissue and the SO2. AIM: We propose to assess the reliability of SO2 levels retrieved from spectral fitting by measuring the similarity of OA spectra to the fitted blood absorption spectra. APPROACH: We introduce a metric that quantifies the trends of blood spectra by assigning a pair of spectral slopes to each spectrum. The applicability of the metric is illustrated with in vivo measurements on a human forearm. RESULTS: We show that physiologically sound SO2 values do not necessarily imply a successful spectral correction and demonstrate how the metric can be used to distinguish SO2 values that are trustworthy from unreliable ones. CONCLUSIONS: The metric is independent of the methods used for the OA data acquisition, image reconstruction, and spectral correction, thus it can be readily combined with existing approaches, in order to monitor the accuracy of quantitative OA imaging.

Spectral correction for handheld optoacoustic imaging by means of near-infrared optical tomography in reflection mode.

In vivo imaging of tissue/vasculature oxygen saturation levels is of prime interest in many clinical applications. To this end, the feasibility of combining two distinct and complementary imaging modalities is investigated: optoacoustics (OA) and near-infrared optical tomography (NIROT), both operating noninvasively in reflection mode. Experiments were conducted on two optically heterogeneous phantoms mimicking tissue before and after the occurrence of a perturbation. OA imaging was used to resolve submillimetric vessel-like optical absorbers at depths up to 25 mm, but with a spectral distortion in the OA signals. NIROT measurements were utilized to image perturbations in the background and to estimate the light fluence inside the phantoms at the wavelength pair (760 nm, 830 nm). This enabled the spectral correction of the vessel-like absorbers' OA signals: the error in the ratio of the absorption coefficient at 830 nm to that at 760 nm was reduced from 60%-150% to 10%-20%. The results suggest that oxygen saturation (SO 2 ) levels in arteries can be determined with <10% error and furthermore, that relative changes in vessels' SO 2 can be monitored with even better accuracy. The outcome relies on a proper identification of the OA signals emanating from the studied vessels.

A 3D feature point tracking method for ion radiation.

A robust and computationally efficient algorithm for automated tracking of high densities of particles travelling in (semi-) straight lines is presented. It extends the implementation of (Sbalzarini and Koumoutsakos 2005) and is intended for use in the analysis of single ion track detectors. By including information of existing tracks in the exclusion criteria and a recursive cost minimization function, the algorithm is robust to variations on the measured particle tracks. A trajectory relinking algorithm was included to resolve the crossing of tracks in high particle density images. Validation of the algorithm was performed using fluorescent nuclear track detectors (FNTD) irradiated with high- and low (heavy) ion fluences and showed less than 1% faulty trajectories in the latter.