Scattering media characterization from backscattered Q elements of stokes vectors

Optical characterization of biological tissues is of real interest to improve medical diagnosis and in particular in the detection of precancerous tissues. The reduced scattering coefficient mupsila
_s
and the absorption coefficient mu
_a
are the most commonly retrieved coefficients. Some methods also allow to obtain the anisotropy factor g, but only few of them are non-invasive. We proposed previously two non-invasive methods. The first one, called Integral Reflectance, allows the estimation of mu
_a
and mupsila
_s
from non polarized backscattered reflectance profiles. The second one allows the estimation of g, based on the image analysis of the Q-element of Stokes vector backscattered from the turbid medium. These Q-element images show specific patterns depending on g, and it was explained recently that mupsila
_s
can also be determined from the size of these patterns. In this paper, the Integral Reflectance is applied to the Q-element images, providing a relevant criterion to estimate mupsila
_s
. Experimental results obtained with a fibered emission setup on calibrated scattering suspensions are in agreement with simulation results.