Quantitative phase and polarization imaging through an optical fiber applied to detection of early esophageal tumorigenesis

George S. D. Gordon, James Joseph, Maria P. Alcolea, Travis Sawyer, Calum Williams, Catherine R. M. Fitzpatrick, Philip H. Jones, Massimiliano di Pietro, Rebecca C. Fitzgerald, Timothy D. Wilkinson, Sarah E. Bohndiek

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)
61 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Phase and polarization of coherent light are highly perturbed by interaction with microstructural changes in premalignant tissue, holding promise for label-free detection of early tumors in endoscopically accessible tissues such as the gastrointestinal tract. Flexible optical multicore fiber (MCF) bundles used in conventional diagnostic endoscopy and endomicroscopy scramble phase and polarization, restricting clinicians instead to low-contrast amplitude-only imaging. We apply a transmission matrix characterization approach to produce full-field en-face images of amplitude, quantitative phase, and resolved polarimetric properties through an MCF. We first demonstrate imaging and quantification of biologically relevant amounts of optical scattering and birefringence in tissue-mimicking phantoms. We present an entropy metric that enables imaging of phase heterogeneity, indicative of disordered tissue microstructure associated with early tumors. Finally, we demonstrate that the spatial distribution of phase and polarization information enables label-free visualization of early tumors in esophageal mouse tissues, which are not identifiable using conventional amplitude-only information.

Original languageEnglish
Article number126004
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Biomedical Optics
Volume24
Issue number12
Early online date16 Dec 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2019

Keywords

  • cancer
  • optical fibers
  • polarimetry
  • quantitative phase imaging

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Biomaterials
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Biomedical Engineering

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