Polarimetric characterisation of histological section of skin with pathological changes

Abstract

This work focuses on the further development of the optical methods based on polarization detection to improve the reliability of the results of evaluation of structural changes in biological tissues. The paper presents an experimental study of tissues with pathological alterations to assess the capacity of differentiation of pathological conditions when using averaged local Mueller matrix elements. Experiments were carried out in direct scattering mode in histological samples of human epidermis. The practical significance of the results is the widespread application of the methodology for laser polarimetric analysis of structural changes in anisotropic tissues to identify and assess the degree of pathology in medical diagnosis of skin diseases.