Multiparameter interferometric polarization-enhanced imaging differentiates carcinoma in situ from inflammation of the bladder: an ex vivo study

SIGNIFICANCE: Successful differentiation of carcinoma in situ (CIS) from inflammation in the bladder is key to preventing unnecessary biopsies and enabling accurate therapeutic decisions. Current standard-of-care diagnostic imaging techniques lack the specificity needed to differentiate these states, leading to false positives. AIM: We introduce multiparameter interferometric polarization-enhanced (MultiPIPE) imaging as a promising technology to improve the specificity of detection for better biopsy guidance and clinical outcomes. APPROACH: In this ex vivo study, we extract tissue attenuation-coefficient-based and birefringence-based parameters from MultiPIPE imaging data, collected with a bench-top system, to develop a classifier for the differentiation of benign and CIS tissues. We also analyze morphological features from second harmonic generation imaging and histology slides and perform imaging-to-morphology correlation analysis. RESULTS: MultiPIPE enhances specificity to differentiate CIS from benign tissues by nearly 20% and reduces the false-positive rate by more than four-fold over clinical standards. We also show that the MultiPIPE measurements correlate well with changes in morphological features in histological assessments. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study show the promise of MultiPIPE imaging to be used for better differentiation of bladder inflammation from flat tumors, leading to a fewer number of unnecessary procedures and shorter operating room (OR) time.