Determination of birefringence of myocardial tissue based on PS-OCT with circularly polarized light as reference

Abstract

In this study, the modified spectral domain polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (SD PS-OCT) is proposed for determining the birefringence of the myocardial tissue. In this modified SD PS-OCT, the circular polarization state of light was generated before entering the beam splitter. Thus, the polarization states in the reference and sample arms are both circular, and the symmetry between them is good without using additional Quarter-Wave Plate (QWP), which reduce the dispersion effect. The results demonstrated that theoretical analysis for determination of birefringence including the phase retardance and the fast axis orientation based on Stokes parameters of backscattered from biological tissue, which is different from the traditional SD PS-OCT. In addition, the phase retardance and the fast axis orientation was used to differentiate the myocaridal tissue in the diastole of the cardiac cycle the from that in the systole of the cardiac cycle. The findings suggest that the SD PS-OCT be a potential tool for the real-time monitoring the change of the myocardial wall during the cardiac cycle.