Measurement of tissue optical properties in a wide spectral range: a review

A distinctive feature of this review is a critical analysis of methods and results of measurements of the optical properties of tissues in a wide spectral range from deep UV to terahertz waves. Much attention is paid to measurements of the refractive index of biological tissues and liquids, the knowledge of which is necessary for the effective application of many methods of optical imaging and diagnostics. The optical parameters of healthy and pathological tissues are presented, and the reasons for their differences are discussed, which is important for the discrimination of pathologies and the demarcation of their boundaries. When considering the interaction of terahertz radiation with tissues, the concept of an effective medium is discussed, and relaxation models of the effective optical properties of tissues are presented. Attention is drawn to the manifestation of the scattering properties of tissues in the THz range and the problems of measuring the optical properties of tissues in this range are discussed. In conclusion, a method for the dynamic analysis of the optical properties of tissues under optical clearing using an application of immersion agents is presented. The main mechanisms and technologies of optical clearing, as well as examples of the successful application for differentiation of healthy and pathological tissues, are analyzed

Biomedical applications of sapphire shaped crystals

We have proposed novel medical instrument

Sub-wavelength-resolution imaging of biological tissues using THz solid immersion microscopy

We have proposed a method of THz soli

In vitro terahertz spectroscopy of malignant brain gliomas embedded in gelatin slab

In our work, we have performed in vitro terahert

Terahertz technology in intraoperative neurodiagnostics: A review

Terahertz (THz) technology offers novel opportunities in biology and medicine, thanks to the unique features of THz-wave interactions with tissues and cells. Among them, we particularly notice strong sensitivity of THz waves to the tissue water, as a medium for biochemical reactions and a main endogenous marker for THz spectroscopy and imaging. Tissues of the brain have an exceptionally high content of water. This factor, along with the features of the structural organization and biochemistry of neuronal and glial tissues, makes the brain an exciting subject to study in the THz range. In this paper, progress and prospects of THz technology in neurodiagnostics are overviewed, including diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease, myelin deficit, tumors of the central nervous system (with an emphasis on brain gliomas), and traumatic brain injuries. Fundamental and applied challenges in study of the THz-wave – brain tissue interactions and development of the THz biomedical tools and systems for neurodiagnostics are discussed

Quantitative super-resolution solid immersion microscopy via refractive index profile reconstruction

Solid Immersion (SI) microscopy is a modern imaging modality that overcomes the Abbe diffraction limit and offers novel applications in various branches of visible, infrared, terahertz, and millimeter-wave optics. Despite the widespread use, SI microscopy usually results in qualitative imaging. Indeed, it presents only the raw distributions (in the image plane) of the backscattered field intensity, while unlocking the information about the physical properties of an imaged object, such as its complex refractive index (RI) distribution, requires resolving the inverse problem and remains a daunting task. In this paper, a method for resolving the SI microscopy inverse problem is developed, capable of reconstructing the RI distribution at the object imaging plane with subwavelength spatial resolution, while performing only intensity measurements. The sample RI is retrieved via minimization of the error function that characterizes discrepancy between the experimental data and the predictions of analytical model. This model incorporates all the key features of the electromagnetic-wave interaction with the SI lens and an imaged object, including contributions of the evanescent and ordinary-reflected waves, as well as effects of light polarization and wide beam aperture. The model is verified numerically, using the finite-element frequency-domain method, and experimentally, using the in-house reflection-mode continuous-wave terahertz SI microscope. Spatial distributions of the terahertz RIs of different low-absorbing optical materials and highly absorbing biological objects were studied and compared to a priori known data to demonstrate the potential of the novel SI microscopy modality. Given the linear nature of the Maxwell’s equations, the developed method can be applied for subwavelength-resolution SI microscopy at other spectral ranges

In vitro terahertz spectroscopy of gelatin-embedded human brain tumors - a pilot study

We have performed the in vitro terahertz (THz) spectroscopy of human brain tumors. In order to x tissue

Wavelet-domain de-noising of OCT images of human brain malignant glioma

We have proposed a wavelet-domain de-noising technique for imaging of human brain malignant glioma by optical coherence tomography (OCT). It implies OCT image decomposition using the direct fast wavelet transform, thresholding of the obtained wavelet spectrum and further inverse fast wavelet transform for image reconstruction. By selecting both wavelet basis and thresholding procedure, we have found an optimal wavelet filter, which application improves differentiation of the considered brain tissue classes – i.e. malignant glioma and normal/intact tissue. Namely, it allows reducing the scattering noise in the OCT images and retaining signal decrement for each tissue class. Therefore, the observed results reveals the wavelet-domain de-noising as a prospective tool for improved characterization of biological tissue using the OCT

Biomedical applications of sapphire shaped crystals

We have proposed novel medical instrument