Modeling of the optical behavior of myocardial fibers in polarized light imaging

Abstract

Many cardiovascular diseases are linked to anomalies in myocardial fibers. The purpose of this paper is to model the birefringence of myocardial fibers in polarized light imaging (PLI) with future application to measurements on real myocardial tissues. The method consists in modeling the behavior of a uni-axial birefringent crystal by means of the Muller matrix, and measuring the final intensity of polarized light and consequently the orientation of myocardial fibers, by using crossed polarizers. The method was illustrated with a tissue modeled as a volume of 100×100×500μm3. This volume was divided into cubes of size 20μm close to cell diameter. The fiber orientation within the cube was defined by azimuth and elevation angles. The results showed that the proposed modeling enables us to find the optimal conditions for the PLI of 3D fiber orientations and design a model for the myocardial tissue measurement from PLI. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.