Plum pudding random medium model of biological tissue toward remote microscopy from spectroscopic light scattering

Biological tissue has a complex structure and exhibits rich spectroscopic behavior. There is \emph{no} tissue model up to now able to account for the observed spectroscopy of tissue light scattering and its anisotropy. Here we present, \emph{for the first time}, a plum pudding random medium (PPRM) model for biological tissue which succinctly describes tissue as a superposition of distinctive scattering structures (plum) embedded inside a fractal continuous medium of background refractive index fluctuation (pudding). PPRM faithfully reproduces the wavelength dependence of tissue light scattering and attributes the "anomalous" trend in the anisotropy to the plum and the powerlaw dependence of the reduced scattering coefficient to the fractal scattering pudding. Most importantly, PPRM opens up a novel venue of quantifying the tissue architecture and microscopic structures on average from macroscopic probing of the bulk with scattered light alone without tissue excision. We demonstrate this potential by visualizing the fine microscopic structural alterations in breast tissue (adipose, glandular, fibrocystic, fibroadenoma, and ductal carcinoma) deduced from noncontact spectroscopic measurement

Population demographics and clinical features in SMA patients.

<p>Population demographics and clinical features in SMA patients.</p

Spinal cord segmentation, cord straightening and radial distance illustration.

<p>(A) Preprocessed T2-weighted mid-sagittal section in an SMA patient. The yellow dashed lines delimit the cervical spinal cord region. (B) Resulted segmentation mask (orange). (C) Cervical spinal cord straightening. (D) Mask straightening (orange). (E) Radial distance measurements. A, anterior; I, inferior; L, left, P, posterior, R, right, S, superior.</p

3D atrophy profile along the cervical spinal cord in SMA patients.

<p>The color-coding indicates regions with significant atrophy (color scale = p-values of the between groups comparison). A, anterior; I, inferior; L, left, P, posterior, R, right, S, superior.</p

Cumulative incidence of the studied outcomes.

<p>Cumulative incidence of the studied outcomes.</p

Global survival of the study population.

<p>Global survival of the study population.</p

Characteristics of the study population.

<p>Characteristics of the study population.</p

Factors associated with respiratory events.

<p>Factors associated with respiratory events.</p

Factors associated with mortality.

<p>Factors associated with mortality.</p

Factors associated with cardiac events.

<p>Factors associated with cardiac events.</p