Full-Stokes polarization laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy detection of infiltrative glioma boundary tissue

The glioma boundary is difficult to identify during surgery due to the infiltrative characteristics of tumor cells. In order to ensure a full resection rate and increase the postoperative survival of patients, it is often necessary to make an expansion range resection, which may have harmful effects on the quality of the patient’s survival. A full-Stokes laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (FSLIBS) theory with a corresponding system is proposed to combine the elemental composition information and polarization information for glioma boundary detection. To verify the elemental content of brain tissues and provide an analytical basis, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and LIBS are also applied to analyze the healthy, boundary, and glioma tissues. Totally, 42 fresh tissue samples are analyzed, and the Ca, Na, K elemental lines and CN, C₂ molecular fragmental bands are proved to take an important role in the different tissue identification. The FSLIBS provides complete polarization information and elemental information than conventional LIBS elemental analysis. The Stokes parameter spectra can significantly reduce the under-fitting phenomenon of artificial intelligence identification models. Meanwhile, the FSLIBS spectral features within glioma samples are relatively more stable than boundary and healthy tissues. Other tissues may be affected obviously by individual differences in lesion positions and patients. In the future, the FSLIBS may be used for the precise identification of glioma boundaries based on polarization and elemental characterizing ability.