Advantages of cross-polarization endoscopic optical coherence tomography in diagnosis of bladder neoplasia

We consider the cross-polarization OCT (CP OCT) that is focused on comparison of images resulting from cross-polarization and co-polarization scattering simultaneously. This technique provides information about microstructural and biochemical alterations in depolarizing tissue components (collagen). We found that mature type I collagen gives a strong signal in orthogonal polarization. CP OCT images of benign inflammatory processes always feature signal in orthogonal polarization, with layers and borders persisting to be well defined. In the presence of precancerous alterations, signal in orthogonal polarization is available in the image but it is irregular, disappearing in some areas. A CP OCT image of bladder cancer in orthogonal polarization either shows no signal at all or a weak signal.