This presentation reports a snapshot polarimetry system, capable of measuring a Stokes vector distribution within a millisecond timescale. The proposed system measures at a perpendicular backscattering angle and features a polarization state analyzer with no moving parts, comprised of a pair of quarter waveplates and pixel polarization cameras. An additional novel design aspect of the system is its capability to register polarization speckle. Polarization speckle contains both polarization and phase information that is not available from conventional techniques. The device’s acquisition speed and small form factor enable future studies of polarization speckle for biomedical applications.
Recently optical imaging is focused on non-invasive methods which could be automated and provide diagnostics in vivo. Coherence and polarization encoding the wave phase transformation create additional channels of information compared with the amplitude-based techniques. The modification of polarization properties like depolarization, birefringence, and diattenuation are the subject of polarimetry. One of the depolarization metrics is the Degree of Polarization (DOP), which represent the fraction of polarized light maintained while light propagates in media, ranging from 1 for fully polarized to 0 for totally depolarized light. After constructing a one-shot Stokes polarimetry probe, we conducted a preliminary clinical trial including 20 benign, 28 malignant skin lesions. Also 59 normal skin sites where tested. Using DOP as a diagnostics criterion we were able to separate Malignant Melanomas against all other lesions. Another depolarization metric tested was the Polarization Memory Rate (PMR) which characterizes the decay of circularly polarized light relative to linearly polarized light as light propagates in a medium. PMR demonstrates a strong diagnostics potential separating all cancer against benign lesions.
Significance: Management of skin cancer worldwide is often a challenge of scale, in that the number of potential cases presented outweighs the resources available to detect and treat skin cancer.
Aim: This project aims to develop a polarimetry probe to create an accessible skin cancer detection tool.
Approach: An optical probe was developed to perform bulk tissue Stokes polarimetry, a technique in which a laser of known polarization illuminates a target, and the altered polarization state of the backscattered light is measured. Typically, measuring a polarization state requires four sequential measurements with different orientations of polarization filters; however, this probe contains four spatially separated detectors to take four measurements in one shot. The probe was designed to perform at a lower cost and higher speed than conventional polarimetry methods. The probe uses photodiodes and linear and circular film polarizing filters as detectors, and a low-coherence laser diode as its illumination source. The probe design takes advantage of the statistical uniformity of the polarization speckle field formed at the detection area.
Results: Tests of each probe component, and the complete system put together, were performed to evaluate error and confirm the probe’s performance despite its low-cost components. This probe’s potential is demonstrated in a pilot clinical study on 71 skin lesions. The degree of polarization was found to be a factor by which malignant melanoma could be separated from other types of skin lesions.
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in North America, and melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer. Roughness assessment of epidermis has been shown to be valuable in detecting potential skin neoplasia. However, the existing roughness assessment techniques cannot also provide volumetric information. For greater insight, we propose polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) for skin assessment. The intensity channel of OCT visualizes the layered structure and surface roughness profile of skin in 3D. Furthermore, PS-OCT can simultaneously conduct polarization related measurements such as the degree of polarization uniformity (DOPU) in a separate imaging channel. Skin phantoms of different surface roughness ranging from 1 to 68 μm have been studied. It was observed that for rougher surfaces, the roughness can be quantified from the surface profile visible in the intensity channel. In smoother surfaces for which the profile is not sensitive, the DOPU decreases with roughness in a quantifiable correlation. The contrast in the DOPU channel is sensitive to polarization and phase fluctuations. Smoother surfaces tend to maintain the polarization state, whereas the height differences in a rougher surface contribute to larger phase shifts between light waves within the coherence volume, leading to greater depolarization. PS-OCT was also applied to in vivo imaging of human skin. The skin at the palm edge shows lower DOPU compared to the skin on the back of the hand, an indication of greater polarization state modification caused by skin roughness. PS-OCT can provide a comprehensive evaluation of skin, which has great potential for detecting melanoma.
Introduction: Management of skin cancer worldwide is often a challenge of scale, in that the resources available to detect and treat skin cancer are outweighed by the number of potential cases presented. This project aims to develop oneshot Stokes polarimetry using low-cost components to create a widely available skin cancer detection tool. Methods: A probe was developed to perform one-shot Stokes polarimetry on skin lesions in-vivo. Stokes polarimetry is an optical technique in which a laser of known polarization is fired at a target, and the altered polarization state of the returning light is measured. Typically, measuring a polarization state requires sequential measurements with four polarizing filters, however this probe contains four separate detectors to take these measurements in one shot. This probe was designed to perform at a lower cost and higher speed than traditional polarization methods. The Stokes vector is assessed as opposed to a Mueller matrix image to reduce the number of optical components and measurements required. The probe uses photodiodes and non-actuating film polarizing filters as detectors, and a partially-coherent laser diode as its illumination source. Results: Validation tests of each probe component, and the complete system put together, were performed to confirm the probe’s performance despite its low-cost components. This probe’s potential is demonstrated in a pilot clinical study on 69 skin lesions. The degree of polarization was found to be a factor by which melanoma could be potentially separated from other types of skin lesions.
Determining the optical polarization properties of a skin lesion is a proposed method to differentiate melanoma from other skin lesions. We developed an in vivo Stokes polarimetry probe that fires a laser of known polarization at the skin and measures the Stokes parameters of the backscattered light in one shot. From these measured Stokes parameters, we can calculate the degree of polarization (DOP). Through testing on rough skin phantoms, a correlation between backscattered DOP and skin roughness was identified for both linear and circular input polarization, the latter of which was found to be more useful. In a pilot clinical trial of 69 skin lesions in vivo, it was found that the mean DOP for melanoma (linear input on melanoma: 0.46 ± 0.09) was greater than that of other lesions (linear input on all other lesions: 0.28 ± 0.01). This separation is greater for circular polarized input light, and it is likely that circular polarized light’s greater sensitivity to surface roughness contributes to this result. In addition, all skin lesions demonstrated a stronger depolarizing effect on circular polarized light than linear polarized light. We have identified DOP as a potentially useful measurement to identify melanoma among other types of skin lesions.
This paper reports on the design of a prototype in-vivo Stokes polarimetry probe for skin lesion evaluation, and preliminary results from skin phantom and clinical trials of this device. The probe releases a single millisecond-long pulse from a laser diode with either linear or circular polarization. It then captures the resulting backscattered far-field polarization speckle and calculates the Stokes parameters. This probe was designed with three novel innovations in mind. First, the Stokes vector is captured quickly, using low-cost components without the use of moving parts. Second, a compact collimated laser diode was used as the light source. Third, the device and detector geometry were designed to produce and capture a uniform speckle field. In the first clinical trial of this device, measurements were taken from a variety of skin lesions, both cancerous and benign. The Stokes vector was measured and used to calculate the degree of polarization (DOP), the azimuth angle, and the ellipticity angle of the polarization ellipse for two input light polarizations. Among other findings, the DOP for circular polarized input light was consistently lower than the DOP for linear polarized input light. These findings indicate the potential for a fast and low-cost in-vivo skin cancer screening tool, and encourages the continuing development of this probe’s techniques.
Polarization speckle is a rapidly developed field. Unlike laser speckle, polarization speckle consists of stochastic interference patterns with spatially random polarizations, amplitudes and phases. We have been working in this exciting research field, developing techniques to generate polarization patterns from skin. We hypothesize that polarization speckle patterns could be used in biomedical applications, especially, for detecting and monitoring skin cancers, the most common neoplasmas for white populations around the world. This paper describes our effort in developing two polarization speckle devices. One of them captures the Stokes parameters So and S1 simultaneously, and another one captures all four Stokes parameters So, S1, S2, and S3 in one-shot, within milliseconds. Hence these two devices could be used in medical clinics and assessed skin conditions in-vivo. In order to validate our hypothesis, we conducted a series of three clinical studies. These are early pilot studies, and the results suggest that the devices have potential to detect and monitor skin cancers.
Skin surface roughness is an important property for differentiating skin diseases. Recently, roughness has also been identified as a potential diagnostic indicator in the early detection of skin cancer. Objective quantification is usually carried out by creating silicone replicas of the skin and then measuring the replicas. We have developed an alternative in-vivo technique to measure skin roughness based on laser speckle. Laser speckle is the interference pattern produced when coherent light is used to illuminate a rough surface and the backscattered light is imaged. Acquiring speckle contrast measurements from skin phantoms with controllable roughness, we created a calibration curve by linearly interpolating between measured points. This calibration curve accounts for internal scattering and is designed to evaluate skin microrelief whose root-mean-square roughness is in the range of 10-60 micrometers. To validate the effectiveness of our technique, we conducted a study to measure 243 skin lesions including actinic keratosis (8), basal cell carcinoma (24), malignant melanoma (31), nevus (73), squamous cell carcinoma (19), and seborrheic keratosis (79). The average roughness values ranged from 26 to 57 micrometers. Malignant melanoma was ranked as the smoothest and squamous cell carcinoma as the roughest lesion. An ANOVA test confirmed that malignant melanoma has significantly smaller roughness than other lesion types. Our results suggest that skin microrelief can be used to detect malignant melanoma from other skin conditions.
Skin roughness is an important parameter in the characterization of skin and skin lesions, particularly for the purposes of
skin cancer detection. Our group had previously constructed a laser speckle device that can detect the roughness in
microrelief of the skin. This paper reports on findings made for the further miniaturization of our existing portably-sized
device. These findings include the feasibility of adopting a laser diode without temperature control, and the use of a single
CCD camera for detection. The coherence length of a laser is a crucial criterion for speckle measurements as it must be
within a specific range. The coherence length of a commercial grade 405 nm laser diode was found to be of an appropriate
length. Also, after a short warm-up period the coherence length of the laser was found to remain relatively stable, even
without temperature control. Although the laser’s temperature change during operation may affect its power output and
the shape of its spectrum, these are only minor factors in speckle contrast measurements. Our second finding covers a
calibration curve to relate speckle measurements to roughness using only parallel polarization from one CCD camera. This
was created using experimental data from skin phantoms and tested on in-vivo skin. These improvements are important
steps forward in the ongoing development of the laser speckle device, especially towards a clinical device to measure skin
roughness and evaluate skin lesions.
In the framework of further development of a unified computational tool for the needs of biomedical optics, we introduce an electric field Monte Carlo (MC) model for simulation of backscattering of coherent linearly polarized light from a turbid tissue-like scattering medium with a rough surface. We consider the laser speckle patterns formation and the role of surface roughness in the depolarization of linearly polarized light backscattered from the medium. The mutual phase shifts due to the photons’ pathlength difference within the medium and due to reflection/refraction on the rough surface of the medium are taken into account. The validation of the model includes the creation of the phantoms of various roughness and optical properties, measurements of co- and cross-polarized components of the backscattered/reflected light, its analysis and extensive computer modeling accelerated by parallel computing on the NVIDIA graphics processing units using compute unified device architecture (CUDA). The analysis of the spatial intensity distribution is based on second-order statistics that shows a strong correlation with the surface roughness, both with the results of modeling and experiment. The results of modeling show a good agreement with the results of experimental measurements on phantoms mimicking human skin. The developed MC approach can be used for the direct simulation of light scattered by the turbid scattering medium with various roughness of the surface.
The incidence of the skin melanoma, the most commonly fatal form of skin cancer, is increasing faster than any other
potentially preventable cancer. Clinical practice is currently hampered by the lack of the ability to rapidly screen the
functional and morphological properties of tissues. In our previous study we show that the quantification of scattered
laser light polarization provides a useful metrics for diagnostics of the malignant melanoma. In this study we exploit
whether the image speckle could improve skin cancer diagnostic in comparison with the previously used free-space
speckle. The study includes skin phantom measurements and computer modeling. To characterize the depolarization of
light we measure the spatial distribution of speckle patterns and analyse their depolarization ratio taken into account
radial symmetry. We examine the dependences of depolarization ratio vs. roughness for phantoms which optical
properties are of the order of skin lesions. We demonstrate that the variation in bulk optical properties initiates the
assessable changes in the depolarization ratio. We show that image speckle differentiates phantoms significantly better
than free-space speckle. The results of experimental measurements are compared with the results of Monte Carlo
simulation.
The growing interest in biomedical optics to the polarimetric methods push researchers to better understand of light
depolarization during scattering in and on the surface of biological tissues. Here we study the depolarization of light
propagated in silicone phantoms. The phantoms with variety of surface roughness and bulk optical properties are
designed to imitate human skin. Free-space speckle patterns in parallel (III) and perpendicular (I⊥) direction in respect to
incident polarization are used to get the depolarization ratio of backscattered light DR = (III - I⊥)/( III + I⊥). The Monte
Carlo model developed in house is also applied to compare simulated DR with experimentally measured. DR dependence
on roughness, concentration and size of scattering particles is analysed. A weak depolarization and negligible response to
scattering of the medium are observed for phantoms with smooth surfaces, whereas for the surface roughness in order to
the mean free path the depolarization ratio decreases and reveals dependence on the bulk scattering coefficient. In is
shown that the surface roughness could be a key factor triggering the ability of tissues’ characterization by depolarization
ratio.
Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the Western world. In order to accurately detect the disease, especially malignant melanoma-the most fatal form of skin cancer-at an early stage when the prognosis is excellent, there is an urgent need to develop noninvasive early detection methods. We believe that polarization speckle patterns, defined as a spatial distribution of depolarization ratio of traditional speckle patterns, can be an important tool for skin cancer detection. To demonstrate our technique, we conduct a large in vivo clinical study of 214 skin lesions, and show that statistical moments of the polarization speckle pattern could differentiate different types of skin lesions, including three common types of skin cancers, malignant melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and two benign lesions, melanocytic nevus and seborrheic keratoses. In particular, the fourth order moment achieves better or similar sensitivity and specificity than many well-known and accepted optical techniques used to differentiate melanoma and seborrheic keratosis.
We have been investigating the quantification of skin surface roughness by polychromatic speckle contrast. Speckle
contrast, being a measure of light coherence, decreases as coherence decays when low coherent light is reflected from a
rough surface. The main constraint of applying the technique to skin is the presence of bulk scattering along with surface
reflection. Bulk scattering also decays coherence and is a source of noise. To examine the effect of bulk contribution, we
studied speckle patterns generated by silicone phantoms with controllable roughness and optical parameters in the range
of human skin. We discovered that using the theoretical curve plotting speckle contrast vs. surface roughness as a
calibration curve overestimates the phantom surface roughness. We propose to use the effective calibration curve for the
proper skin roughness measurements. The effective calibration curve was obtained experimentally taking the advantage
of its weak dependence on phantom's attenuation coefficients.
Skin cancer is a worldwide health problem. It is the most common cancer in the countries with a large white population;
furthermore, the incidence of malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, has been increasing steadily
over the last three decades. There is an urgent need to develop in-vivo, noninvasive diagnostic tools for the disease. This
paper attempts to response to the challenge by introducing a simple and fast method based on polarization and laser
speckle. The degree of maintaining polarization estimates the fraction of linearly maintaining polarization in the backscattered
speckle field. Clinical experiments of 214 skin lesions including malignant melanomas, squamous cell
carcinomas, basal cell carcinomas, nevi, and seborrheic keratoses demonstrated that such a parameter can potentially
diagnose different skin lesion types. ROC analyses showed that malignant melanoma and seborrheic keratosis could be
differentiated by both the blue and red lasers with the area under the curve (AUC) = 0.8 and 0.7, respectively. Also
malignant melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma could be separated by the blue laser (AUC = 0.9), while nevus and
seborrheic keratosis could be identified using the red laser (AUC = 0.7). These experiments demonstrated that
polarization could be a potential in-vivo diagnostic indicator for skin diseases.
Laser light propagated in semi-transparent turbid media such as biological tissue loses its coherence and polarization.
Speckle contrast can be considered as a metric of light coherence. Recently we demonstrated that polychromatic speckle
contrast and degree of polarization are useful criteria for skin lesion differentiation. To gain a better understanding of this
complex process, we conducted an experiment to measure the speckle contrast and the average degree of polarization of
solid skin phantoms with controllable roughness and bulk optical parameters of the order of human skin. The data
validated that bulk scattering along with roughness introduce speckle contrast and DOLP reduction. Also we observed
that speckle contrast and the average degree of polarization were related to the bulk scattering coefficient. The speckle
contrast vs. degree of linear polarization dependence reveals a near linear relationship with the slope varying with the
scattering coefficient of the material. The significant difference between slopes for two phantoms with slightly
dissimilar optical properties could suggest that this pair of measurements (speckle contrast vs. degree of linear
polarization) is highly sensitive to the tissue type and can be potentially used as a parameter for material differentiation.
The incidence of malignant melanoma (MM), the most aggressive and deadly form of skin cancer, has been increasing
rapidly since the last few decades. Clinical differentiation between MM and pigmented benign skin lesions based on
visual assessment can be challenging because some of benign lesions such as melanocytic lesions (ML) and seborrheic
keratoses (SK) resemble MM. In this paper we introduce a novel, non-invasive, "optical biopsy" method based on laser
speckle. Propagating inside the skin tissues, photons undergo optical path dispersion due to scattering. Therefore the
emerging light loses the initial state of coherence, which influences the backscattered speckle pattern if the light optical
path deviation in a tissue is comparable with the length of coherence. Speckle contrast is a measure of this decorrelation
process. Histology shows that MM, ML, and SK have diverse morphology. We hypothesized that the morphological
differences can be detected by polychromatic speckle, and the technique can be used to differentiate these lesions in
vivo. In a study with 12 MMs, 24 MLs, and 37 SKs, we computed the speckle contrast related to their superficial skin
region. The mean contrast of MM, ML and SK were 0.78 (standard error (SE) = 0.02, 0.63 (SE = 0.01), and 0.67 (SE =
0.01), respectively. Statistical test showed that there was a significant difference among the contrast of the three types of
lesions (p < 0.001, Kruskal-Wallis), and intergroup pair-wise tests showed significant differences in distribution
between all three groups. Potentially, speckle imaging can differentiate these lesions.
Recent revitalization of interests in applying speckle techniques gives rise to the concern of measurement accuracy. In
particular, speckle contrast, an important metric in numerous optical techniques, is affected by many factors related to
light sources, propagation media, and receivers. As a result, proper experimental design is required to minimize
measurement errors. This article considers errors introduced by the discrepancy of incidence and observation angles, by
the limited number of available speckles, and by intensity saturation.
Background: The intermixing of light reflected from tissue surface and scattered from tissue volume complicates skin
surface roughness assessment by laser speckle technique, a non-invasive optical method based on the analysis of the
contrast of a speckle pattern. Objective: In this study we investigated optical discrimination methods to separate the two
contributions in a speckle pattern. Methods: Three discrimination methods, spatial, polarization and spectral filtering,
were implemented to suppress light from skin internal volume in a laser speckle device. In order to determine the
effectiveness of the discrimination methods, speckle patterns were obtained from healthy volunteers, and polychromatic
speckle contrast was computed before and after each filtering procedure. Results: Speckle contrast increased after
discrimination filtering. A simple formula was derived to calculate the speckle contrast associated with light scattered
from the skin surface. This corrected speckle contrast was proposed to be used for skin roughness assessment.
A simple physical zone model was developed to explain the formation of polychromatic speckle patterns within the Fresnel region. This model represents a reasonable compromise between complex theoretical formulation and simple estimations for practical needs, and allows the speckle contrast to be calculated as a function of geometric parameters for the optics and coherence length of the light source. The model was experimentally verified, and the results are consistent with our previous rigorous theoretical formulation.
Speckle contrast is widely used in various applications. In this work we develop a simple model to examine the influence of optical geometry on contrast reduction for polychromatic speckle the Fresnel diffraction zone. The model is based on the known fact that the sum of N independent speckle patterns decreases the contrast of the resultant pattern. The model shows how to construct zones in such a way that each zone creates an independent speckle. Theoretical grounds and experimental validation are presented. Practical applications of the derived formulae are discussed. The contrast reduction due to geometry is found to be significant for broad light low-coherent beams.
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