Insights into Polycrystalline Microstructure of Blood Films with 3D Mueller Matrix Imaging Approach

We introduce a 3D Mueller Matrix (MM) image reconstruction technique using digital holographic approach for the layer-by-layer profiling thin films with polycrystalline structures, like dehydrated blood smears. The proposed method effectively extracts optical anisotropy parameters for a detailed quantitative analysis. The investigation revealed the method sensitivity to subtle changes in optical anisotropy properties resulting from alterations in the quaternary and tertiary structures of blood proteins, leading to disturbances in crystallization structures at the macro level at the very early stage of a disease. Spatial distributions of linear and circular birefringence and dichroism are analyzed in partially depolarizing polycrystalline blood films obtained from healthy tissues and cancerous prostate tissues at various stages of adenocarcinoma. Changes in the values of the 1st to 4th order statistical moments, characterizing the distributions of optical anisotropy in different phase sections of the smear volumes, are observed and quantified. Comparative analysis of optical anisotropy distributions from healthy patients highlighted the 3rd and 4th order statistical moments for linear and circular birefringence and dichroism as the most promising for diagnostic purposes. We achieved an excellent accuracy (>90%) for early cancer diagnosis and differentiation of its stages, demonstrating the techniques significant potential for rapid and accurate definitive cancer diagnosis compared to existing screening approaches.