Open AccessPolarimetric visualization of healthy brain fiber tracts under adverse conditions: ex vivo studies
Author(s) -
Omar Rodríguez-Núñez,
Philippe Schucht,
Ekkehard Hewer,
Tatiaovikova,
Angelo Pierangelo
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.439754
Subject(s) - ex vivo , polarimetry , white matter , optics , orientation (vector space) , scanning laser polarimetry , medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , in vivo , optical coherence tomography , radiology , physics , nerve fiber layer , biology , scattering , geometry , microbiology and biotechnology , mathematics
We suggest using the wide-field imaging Mueller polarimetry to contrast optically anisotropic fiber tracts of healthy brain white matter for the detection of brain tumor borders during neurosurgery. Our prior studies demonstrate that this polarimetric imaging modality detects correctly the in-plane orientation of brain white matter fiber tracts of a flat formalin-fixed thick brain specimen in reflection geometry [IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging39, 4376 (2020)10.1109/TMI.2020.3018439]. Here we present the results of ex vivo polarimetric studies of large cross-sections of fresh calf brain in reflection geometry with a special focus on the impact of the adverse measurement conditions (e.g. complex surface topography, presence of blood, etc.) on the quality of polarimetric images and the detection performance of white matter fiber tracts and their in-plane orientation.