Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/0059—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence
  • A61B5/0082—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence adapted for particular medical purposes
  • A61B5/0084—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence adapted for particular medical purposes for introduction into the body, e.g. by catheters
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/0059—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence
  • A61B5/0075—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons using light, e.g. diagnosis by transillumination, diascopy, fluorescence by spectroscopy, i.e. measuring spectra, e.g. Raman spectroscopy, infrared absorption spectroscopy
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
  • G01N21/00—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of optical means, i.e. using sub-millimetre waves, infrared, visible or ultraviolet light
  • G01N21/17—Systems in which incident light is modified in accordance with the properties of the material investigated
  • G01N21/47—Scattering, i.e. diffuse reflection
  • G01N21/4795—Scattering, i.e. diffuse reflection spatially resolved investigating of object in scattering medium
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B2562/00—Details of sensors; Constructional details of sensor housings or probes; Accessories for sensors
  • A61B2562/02—Details of sensors specially adapted for in-vivo measurements
  • A61B2562/0233—Special features of optical sensors or probes classified in A61B5/00
  • A61B2562/0242—Special features of optical sensors or probes classified in A61B5/00 for varying or adjusting the optical path length in the tissue
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/44—Detecting, measuring or recording for evaluating the integumentary system, e.g. skin, hair or nails
  • A61B5/441—Skin evaluation, e.g. for skin disorder diagnosis
  • A61B5/444—Evaluating skin marks, e.g. mole, nevi, tumour, scar
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
  • G01N21/00—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of optical means, i.e. using sub-millimetre waves, infrared, visible or ultraviolet light
  • G01N21/17—Systems in which incident light is modified in accordance with the properties of the material investigated
  • G01N21/47—Scattering, i.e. diffuse reflection
  • G01N2021/4792—Polarisation of scatter light

Definitions

• the present invention relates to an optical device for assessing optical depth in a sample.
• the invention also relates to a corresponding catheter, a corresponding method, and a corresponding computer program product.
• Optical characterization of a medical condition of a patient is currently an area of growth, partly due to the increasing number of possible medical conditions that are detectable by emerging optical technologies.
• early detection by optical methods of for example cancer may facilitate an opportunity for improved detection giving rising to an increased chance of survival for the patient.
• medical relevant information is available from very small tissue volume, even pre-malignant changes in tissue morphology and physiology may become distinguishable.
• epithelial tissue layers of various organs have thickness ranging from less than 10 micron in simple (single layer) squamous epithelia to several hundred micron in stratified (multiple cell layers) epithelia. Below the epithelia layers various other tissue layers are present such as connective tissue, inflammatory cells, neurovascular structures etc. Since the penetration depth of light is, in general, much larger than that of the epithelial layer the backscattered light from the tissue contains information of the change in the epithelial layers superimposed on a large background signal arising form the deeper layered tissues. This makes it difficult to extract the relevant information from this signal directly.
• V. Backman et al. disclosed a solution to this problem in IEEE J. Selected Topics Quantum Electron., Vol. 5, No 4, July/ August 1999, p. 1019.
• polarized light is used to illuminate the tissue. Thereafter, they detect the scattered light having the same polarization and the orthogonal polarization separately by using a polarizing beam splitter and two separate detectors. Since the signal coming from the epithelial layer will be scattered typically only once the polarization will be significantly preserved.
• the scattered light coming from the deeper layers, being multiple scattered, will loose the original polarization information and will become isotropically distributed whereby the original polarization is lost.
• By subtracting both signals from each other one can remove the background signal from the desired signal being backscattered from the epithelial layer.
• a drawback of the method of Backman et al. is that there will normally still be single scattered photons coming from the layer deeper than the epithelial layer, these deeper layer may thus negatively influence the desired signal. Furthermore, because a large background signal is removed from the smaller actual signal, a significant amount of noise will be present in the final signal, which limits the measurement accuracy. This in turn limits the detection limit with regard to how early a cancer in the tissue can be detected. Additionally, if a patient is under temporal influence of a substance, e.g. a pharmaceutical drug, the optical properties of the epithelial layers may change in response to the said substance, thereby making the reliability of an optical assessment of a patient with this method even lower.
• a substance e.g. a pharmaceutical drug
• an improved optical device would be advantageous, and in particular a more efficient and/or reliable optical device would be advantageous.
• the invention preferably seeks to mitigate, alleviate or eliminate one or more of the above mentioned disadvantages singly or in any combination.
• an optical device for assessing optical depth in an associated sample, the device comprising: a radiation source capable of emitting radiation with an initial polarization (P O), a first and a second radiation guide, the first radiation guide being optically connected to the radiation source for emitting radiation to the sample, the first and the second radiation guide having their respective end portions substantially aligned with each other, the end portions further being arranged for capturing reflected radiation from the sample, a detector being optically connected to the first and the second radiation guide, the detector being arranged for measuring, within an optical subband, an indication of:
• P O initial polarization
• processing means operably connected to the detector, the processing means being adapted to calculate a first (f) and a second (g) spectral function within the optical subband, both spectral functions (f, g) being substantially indicative of single scattering events in the sample:
• the first spectral function (f) being a measure of the difference in polarization between the first (P l) polarization of the reflected radiation and the second (P_2) polarization of the reflected radiation
• the processing means is further arranged to calculate a measure of the correlation between the first (f) and a second (g) spectral function so as to assess whether the single scattering events originate from substantially the same optical depth within the sample.
• the invention is particularly, but not exclusively, advantageous for obtaining an optical device where the causal relation between the first and second spectral functions can be used for assessing whether the single scattering events giving rise to the two spectral functions, within the said optical subband, come from substantially the same optical depth (D) within the sample i.e. if there is a significant correlation (C) between the first (f) and the second (g) spectral function.
• D optical depth
• C correlation
• the discrimination against the layers below the epithelial layer provides the advantage that correlation can be used as an indication of a reliable signal from the epithelial layer itself.
• this correlation can be the difference between providing information that may subsequently result in a correct diagnosis or providing information that may subsequently result in an incorrect diagnosis, the latter being for example either a false positive diagnosis or a false negative diagnosis.
• the invention relies, in particularly, on the fact that the underlying physical effect of both spectral functions is essentially independent of each other at least for many practical conditions and applications, in particular for medical applications.
• the depolarization of the sample resulting in the first spectral function (f) depends strongly on the type of molecules present, while the mean free path of the photon in the sample resulting in the second spectral function (g) depends strongly on the distribution of the molecules in the sample.
• the first and second spectral function should result in substantially the same spectral signal if appropriate correction is performed, e.g. normalization.
• appropriate correction e.g. normalization.
• There can be a significant correlation if e.g. there is a strong depolarisation in the sample and also the mean free path of the photons is larger than a characteristic diameter of the first and second radiation guides.
• the information provided may be used with better confidence in connection with a later diagnose.
• the parameter and/or conditions of the present invention may be modified or adapted, or alternatively, another method may be used to provide information for medical purposes.
• the first (f) and the second (g) spectral functions are substantially indicative of single scattering events in the sense that predominately single scattering events in the sample contribute to the first and second spectral function. Nevertheless, there may also be a gradually dismissing contribution from double scattering events, triple scattering events, etc. to the first and/or the second spectral function, the contribution of these higher order scattering events depends in general on the specific interaction on the radiation and the optical properties as it will be readily appreciated by the skilled person once the general principle of the present invention is acknowledged. More specifically, the interaction and thereby the contribution from the higher order scattering events depends on the radiation type (e.g.
• the present invention relates to an inverse scattering problem, where the optical radiation reflected from the sample is used for extracting information about the sample.
• the reader is referred to Biomedical Photonics Handbook, Editor-in-CHief Tuan Vo-Dinh, CRC Press LLC, Florida, ISBN 0-8493-1116-0, see for instance chapter 2.
• the present invention may find appropriate applications in the medical field, the teaching of the invention is not limited to this technical field. Rather, the invention may find also application in many optical applications and areas, where an optically response from an optically thin layer superposed on some kind of substrate is desired, the condition being that the optically thin layer should preferably not be conducting e.g. metallic, because conducting layers in general have a much higher reflectance i.e. the deeper layers will usually not be probed by an impinging beam of radiation. Therefore other applications are envisioned where the surface of a biological sample is to be analysed. Alternatively, semi-conducting surface layers, e.g. silicon or modifications thereof like silica, may be analysed by the present invention.
• the first spectral function (f) may be a polarized light scattering spectroscopy (PLSS) function.
• the second spectral function (g) may be a measure of the differential path length (DPL) between the first and the second radiation guide.
• the detector may be arranged for measuring, within the optical subband, the first polarization (P l) and the second polarization (P_2) of the reflected radiation captured by the first radiation guide to provide the simplest optical path for the polarized radiation.
• the detector may alternative or additionally be arranged for measuring, within the optical subband, the first polarization (P l) and the second polarization (P_2) of the reflected radiation captured by the second radiation guide.
• an additional third radiation guide may be arranged for transmitting radiation with the initial polarization (P O) to the sample, the third radiation guide having an end portion substantially aligned with the end portions of the first and the second radiation guide. This embodiment however requires additional space for the third radiation guide.
• the third radiation guide may be arranged for capturing reflected radiation from the sample, the third radiation guide being optically connected to the detector.
• this third radiation guide provides the advantage that the PLSS and DPL measurements can be performed in separate radiation guides in parallel with each other.
• the detector may be arranged for measuring the first (P l) and the second (P_2) polarization of the reflected radiation in two substantially orthogonal directions.
• the radiation source may be arranged for emitting radiation having the initial polarization (P O) linearly polarized in a plane substantially parallel to a polarization plane of the measured first (P l) or the measured second (P_2) polarization in order to provide a simple, yet effective optical configuration of the optical device. It may, in some applications, be more advantageous to apply circularly polarized radiation as this polarization is better conserved in some kind of radiation guides.
• the first, the second and/or the third radiation guide may be optical fibres.
• the optical fibres may have a diameter (disregarding cladding) of maximum 200 micrometer, preferably maximum 100 micrometer, or even more preferably maximum 50 micrometer.
• the third radiation guide may be arranged for capturing reflected radiation from the sample in order to perform polarised light scattering spectroscopy (PLSS) therewith
• the third radiation guide may then have a maximum diameter of 100 micrometer, preferably maximum 50 micrometer, or even more preferably maximum 25 micrometer, because, in general, the smaller the diameter of the radiation guide, the better the polarization is preserved through the radiation guide.
• the first and/or second radiation guide may then have a minimum diameter of 100 micrometer, preferably minimum 200 micrometer, even more preferably minimum 300 micrometer, or most preferred 400 micrometer in order to perform differential path length (DPL) spectroscopy, because, in general, the diameter of the radiation guides sets the upper limit for how far one can penetrate into a sample with DPL.
• DPL differential path length
• the processing means may be further arranged for determining the correlation for more than one region within the optical subband, the processing means may then be adapted to subsequently select a region of optimum correlation (C) for subsequent optical measurements in order to choose an optimum setting for e.g. a subsequent measurement of a medical condition of a patient.
• the processing means may be further arranged for changing the optical subband in dependency on the found correlation.
• the optical device may comprise actuation means arranged for changing at least the distance of the respective end portions between the first and second radiation guide in dependency of the correlation.
• the actuation means could also adjust their relative position in relation to one another and/or the sample.
• the first, the second and/or the third radiation guide may form part of a catheter, the catheter being suitable for in- vivo characterization of a patient.
• the present invention relates to a catheter arranged for cooperation with an associated optical device, the catheter comprising:
• the first radiation guide being optically connectable to an radiation source for emitting radiation to a sample
• the first and the second radiation guide having their respective end portions substantially aligned with each other, the end portions further being arranged for capturing reflected radiation from the sample
• the associated optical device comprising: a radiation source capable of emitting radiation with an initial polarization (P O), a detector being optically connected to the first and the second radiation guide, the detector being arranged for measuring, within an optical subband, an indication of:
• processing means operably connected to the detector, the processing means being adapted to calculate a first (f) and a second (g) spectral function within the optical subband, both spectral functions (f, g) being substantially indicative of single scattering events in the sample:
• the processing means further being arranged to calculate a measure of the correlation between the first (f) and a second (g) spectral function so as to assess whether the single scattering events originate from substantially the same optical depth within the sample.
• a third radiation guide may be arranged for transmitting radiation with the initial polarization (P O) to the sample, the third radiation guide having an end portion substantially aligned with the end portions of the first and the second radiation guide.
• the third radiation guide may then be arranged for capturing reflected radiation from the sample, the third radiation guide being also optically connectable to the detector in order to perform polarised light scattering spectroscopy (PLSS).
• PLSS polarised light scattering spectroscopy
• the third radiation guide provides the advantage that the PLSS and the differential path length (DPL) spectroscopy measurements can be performed in separate radiation guides in parallel with each other.
• the invention can mitigate the opposing requirement with respect to the diameter of the radiation guides between PLSS, where a lower diameter of the radiation guide is typically desired, and DPL, where a higher diameter of the radiation guide is usually wanted.
• the first, the second and/or the third radiation guide may have polarization conserving properties so as to facilitate substantially undistorted measurement of the first (P l) and second (P_2) polarization.
• the present invention relates to a method for operating an optical device for assessing optical depth (D) in a sample, the method comprising: emitting radiation with an initial polarization (P O) with a radiation source, arranging a first and a second radiation guide in relation to the sample, the first radiation guide being optically connected to the radiation source for emitting radiation to the sample, the first and the second radiation guide having their respective end portions substantially aligned with each other, the end portions further being arranged for capturing reflected radiation from the sample, providing a detector in optical connection to the first and the second radiation guide, the detector being arranged for measuring, within an optical subband, an indication of: - a first polarization (P l) of the reflected radiation,
• processing means operably connected to the detector, the processing means being adapted to calculate a first (f) and a second (g) spectral function within the optical subband, both spectral functions (f, g) being substantially indicative of single scattering events in the sample:
• the first spectral function (f) being a measure of the difference in polarization between the first (P l) polarization of the reflected radiation and the second (P_2) polarization of the reflected radiation
• the second spectral function (g) being a measure of the difference in intensity between the first and second intensities (I I, 1 2) of the reflected radiation, calculating by the processing means a measure of the correlation between the first (f) and a second (g) spectral function so as to assess whether the single scattering events originate from substantially the same optical depth within the sample.
• the invention relates to a computer program product being adapted to enable a computer system comprising at least one computer having data storage means associated therewith to control an optical device according to the third aspect of the invention.
• This aspect of the invention is particularly, but not exclusively, advantageous in that the present invention may be implemented by a computer program product enabling a computer system to perform the operations of the second aspect of the invention.
• some known optical device may be changed to operate according to the present invention by installing a computer program product on a computer system controlling the said known optical device.
• Such a computer program product may be provided on any kind of computer readable medium, e.g. magnetically or optically based medium, or through a computer based network, e.g. the Internet.
• the first, second, third and fourth aspect of the present invention may each be combined with any of the other aspects.
• Figure 1 is a schematic drawing of an optical device according to the invention
• Figure 2 is a schematic drawing of the optical paths for PLSS and DPL
• Figure 3 is a schematic drawing of the optical path within the associated sample for single scattering events
• Figure 4 is a schematic drawing of the optical path within the associated sample for multiple scattering events
• Figure 5 schematically shows a graph with the first (f) and the second (g) spectral function and two examples of the calculated correlation (C) thereof
• Figure 6 is a schematic drawing of an alternative optical device according to the invention
• Figure 7 is a schematic drawing of an alternative optical device according to the invention.
• Figure 8 is a flow chart of a method according to the invention.
• FIG 1 is a schematic drawing of an optical device that can be used for assessing optical depth D, cf. Figures 3 and 4 below, in an associated sample 100.
• the optical device comprises a radiation source 10 capable of emitting radiation 20 with an initial polarization P O.
• the radiation source 10 can for instance be a conventional laser or a tungsten lamp with a suitable polarization filter optically connected thereto at any position along the optical path towards the sample.
• radiation it is to be understood that any kind of suitable radiation can be applied in the context of the present invention, e.g. infra reed (IR) light, visible light, ultraviolet (UV) light, and (soft) X-radiation can be applied.
• first 30a and a second 30b radiation guide are comprised in the optical device, the first and second radiation guide may e.g. be optical fibres or other suitable optical guiding means.
• the first radiation guide 30a is optically connected to the radiation source 10 for emitting radiation 20 to the sample 100 as indicated in Figure 1, the first radiation guide 30a having a substantially polarization preserving property.
• the radiation source 10 can be optically connected to the first radiation guide 30a by an auxiliary radiation guide 11.
• the first and the second radiation guide have their respective end portions 30a' and 30b' substantially aligned with each other, the end portions further being arranged for capturing reflected radiation 25 a and 25b from the sample 100.
• DPL differential path length spectroscopy
• the optical device also comprises a detector 40, which is optically connected to the first 30a and the second 30b radiation guide. The detector 40 is arranged for measuring, within an optical subband, an indication of:
• the detector 40 can for instance be one or more spectrometers with appropriate polarization detection means, e.g. polarization filters or corresponding optical units.
• the measured first I l and the second intensity 1 2 can be spectrographs of a certain radiation band as defined by the said optical subband.
• polarization detection means e.g. polarization filters or corresponding optical units.
• the measured first I l and the second intensity 1 2 can be spectrographs of a certain radiation band as defined by the said optical subband.
• PLSS polarization light scattering spectroscopy
• processing means 60 are operably connected to the detector 40, the processing means being adapted to calculate a first (f ) and a second (g) spectral function within the optical subband, both spectral functions (f, g) being substantially indicative of single scattering events in the sample. Nevertheless, there can also be a gradually dismissing contribution from double scattering events, triple scattering events, etc. to the first (f) and/or the second (g) spectral function as explained above.
• the processing means can be implemented as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors as would be readily realized by the skilled person.
• the first spectral function (f) is a measure of the difference in polarization between the first P l polarization of the reflected radiation 25 and the second P_2 polarization of the reflected radiation 25. As indicated in Figure 1 by the relative position of P l and P_2, the first and second polarization can be detected from the reflected light 25 a being captured by the first radiation guide 25 a, but alternatively or additionally the first and second polarization can be detected from the reflected light 25b being captured by the second radiation guide 25b (not shown in Figure 1).
• the second spectral function (g) is a measure of the difference in intensity between the first I l and second 1 2 intensities of the reflected radiation in the first 25a and second 25b beam of radiation.
• the processing means 60 is further arranged to calculate a measure of the correlation (C) between the first (f) and a second (g) spectral function so as to assess whether the single scattering events originate from substantially the same optical depth (D) within the sample 100.
• Figure 2 is a schematic drawing of the optical paths for PLSS (upper part) and DPL (lower part).
• the initial polarization of the incident light 20 is indicated by P O.
• the reflected light 25 Upon backscattering the reflected light 25 will have a characteristic polarization having at least two components P l and P_2, which the detector 40 (not shown in Figure 2) is arranged for measuring.
• the first P l and the second P_2 polarization of the reflected radiation 25 are indicated as pointing in two substantially orthogonal directions as this may advantageously result in the maximal difference between the two measured polarization directions, though other relative orientations are also possible.
• the radiation source 10 e.g.
• a solid state laser emits radiation with the initial polarization P O being linearly polarized in a plane substantially parallel to a polarization plane of the measured first polarization P l (as shown in Figure 2) or the measured second P_2 polarization.
• the intensity difference between the first I l and the second intensity 1 2 of the reflected radiation 25a and 25b, respectively, is applied for further analysis.
• the relative position of the first and second radiation guide 30a and 30b (not shown) is of course quite important with respect to what kind of information will obtained from the differential signal of the intensities.
• the effective diameter of the radiation guides e.g. the optical fibres, is of high importance for DPL spectroscopy. As a rule of thumb, the diameter of the optical fibre is approximately twice of the probing depth into the tissue for DPL.
• Figure 3 is a schematic drawing of the optical path within the associated sample 100 for single scattering events.
• the incident radiation 20 penetrates into the sample 100 with a certain optical depth D and upon optical interaction at a site within the sample 100 there is reflected radiation 25 in a certain direction.
• the reflected radiation 25 is approximately or exactly backscattered along the direction of the incident radiation 20.
• the solid angle of capture for reflected radiation 25 can be increased.
• Figure 4 is a schematic drawing of the optical path within the associated sample 100 for multiple scattering events.
• the incident radiation 20 is scattered at a site within the sample 100 and subsequently the reflected radiation 25 is scattered twice within the sample 100 as indicated by the two breaks in the arrow 25 marking the optical path of the reflected radiation 25.
• the detected radiation 25 has therefore penetrated into an optical depth D', and the reflected radiation 25 accordingly contains information about the sample within this depth, the information being a summarized contribution of the three scattering events, and it is hardly possible to disentangle the individual contribution from each scattering event.
• Figure 5 schematically shows a graph with the first (f) and the second (g) spectral function on along the vertical axis and the wavelength (L, in micrometer) along the horizontal axis.
• the two spectral functions are shown within the optical subband from Ll to L2.
• the correlation C between the first (f) and the second (g) spectral function can be calculated with normalisation as follows:
• the processing means 60 can adjust the optical subband L1,L2 of the detector 40, change the radiation 20 of the radiation source 10 (power, wavelength, repetition frequency, etc.), modify the relative position of the first 25a and second 25b radiation guide, suggest changing of diameter of the first 25 a and/or second 25b radiation guide and/or change settings of the detector 40 (sampling rate, sensitivity, etc.).
• the processing means 60 can be arranged to initiate these changes or modifications without the approval of an operator controlling the optical device, or the processing means can ask for approval of the operator, possibly the processing means can suggest some of the modifications to the operator e.g. changing the diameter of the radiation guides by using another set of radiation guides.
• the correlation C can be calculated by the processing means 60 in more than one region within the optical subband as indicated by the four correlations Cl, C2, C3, and C4.
• the four regions are shown as non-overlapping for clarity, but the regions may also overlap with one another.
• the processing means can subsequently select a region of optimum correlation (C) for subsequent optical measurements with the optical device, in particular optimum correlation (C) for purposes of later diagnosis can be selected.
• the processing means 60 can add together the correlations from the more than one region (e.g. four as in Figure 5) within the optical subband Ll, L2 in order to obtain an overall value of correlation C.
• the correlations can be summed together with specific weights for each correlations, the weight being decided upon by the specific correlation found (e.g. Cl, C2, etc.), a pre-determined spectral characteristics (e.g. an upper or lower value of f), and/or the spectral region (wavelength L).
• Figure 6 is a schematic drawing of an alternative optical device according to the invention, wherein a third radiation guide 30c is arranged for transmitting radiation 20' with the initial polarization P O to the sample 100.
• the optical device shown in Figure 6 is otherwise similar to optical device shown in Figure 1.
• the third radiation guide 30c may also have an end portion 30c' substantially aligned with the end portions 30a' and 30b' of the first and the second radiation guide, respectively.
• the radiation source 10 can also be divided into two separate and mutually independent radiation sources (not shown in Figure 6).
• This embodiment of the optical device has the advantage that the PLSS and DPL can then be performed independent of each other, thereby making it possible to design the optical device without the constraint that the first 30a and/or the second 30b radiation guides have to be able to perform both kind of spectroscopy.
• Figure 7 is a schematic drawing of an alternative optical device comprising actuation means (not shown) arranged for changing the distance d (indicated by the double arrow) of the respective end portions 30a' and 30b' between the first 30a and second 30b radiation guide in dependency of the correlation C.
• the correlation C can be optimised as a function of the distance d.
• the first and second spectral function can usually be quickly found (less than a fraction of a second) by currently available optical equipment and similarly the correlation C can found even faster by conventional computation means, which means that even if the optical device is applied on a patient there is often time for performing such an optimization of the correlation and the radiation guide distance d.
• in-vivo characterisation by the optical device according to the invention is feasible.
• the optical device shown in Figure 7 is otherwise similar to optical device shown in Figure 1 , the detector 40 and processing means 60 being omitted for clarity.
• Figure 8 is a flow chart of a method according to the invention. The method enables operating an optical device for assessing optical depth D in a sample 100, the method comprising:
• first radiation guide 30a being optically connected to the radiation source for emitting radiation 20 to the sample
• first and the second radiation guide having their respective end portions 30a' and 30b' substantially aligned with each other, the end portions further being arranged for capturing reflected radiation 25a and 25b from the sample
• processing means 60 operably connected to the detector, the processing means being adapted to calculate a first (f) and a second (g) spectral function within the optical subband, both spectral functions (f, g) being substantially indicative of single scattering events in the sample:
• the first spectral function (f) being a measure of the difference in polarization between the first P l polarization of the reflected radiation 25 and the second P_2 polarization of the reflected radiation 25, and
• the second spectral function (g) being a measure of the difference in intensity between the first and second intensities I l and 1 2 of the reflected radiation
• the invention can be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these.
• the invention or some features of the invention can be implemented as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors.
• the elements and components of an embodiment of the invention may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed, the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, the invention may be implemented in a single unit, or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units and processors.

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