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Optical properties of human tendons characterized by PSOCT and their relation to tendinopathy: a clinical study

Polarisation-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PSOCT) is a non destructive technique with great potential for tendinopathy diagnosis. Functional optical assessment can be used in operating theatres to delineate in depth the margin of the non-healthy area, and limit the amount of tissue to be removed. A clinical study of 21 patients has been undertaken to correlate the optical properties of tendons to their clinical conditions. Tendons were scanned ex vivo with a fibre based time domain PSOCT. The beam from a superluminescent diode with a bandwidth of 52nm is sent through a polarizer and a polarizer modulator, and split into a sample and reference arm. After passing through polarization beam splitter, the interferences fringes are detected with two balanced detectors, for horizontal and vertical polarization. Scattering, birefringence and in depth stokes vectors are extracted from the measurements. Direct microstructural variation and changes in scattering properties are correlated with different tendinopathy and presence of scar tissue, which is cross-validated by histology. Lack of tissue organization, detected as the disappearance of the bands of birefringence, is representative of tendon degeneration. Special attention is paid to the difference between crimp patterns of different patient's tendons. As in polarization microscopy, the crimp pattern appears as extinction bands, and is particularly important as its alteration is generally symptomatic and could be used as an early diagnosis. Its optical origin is investigated by varying polarization and scanning conditions.