Myocardial tissue characterization based on the time-resolved Stokes-Mueller formalism.

Time-resolved Stokes vectors of transmitted optical signals were measured to differentiate normal and stunned myocardium tissues. The corresponding Mueller matrices were calculated based on the Stokes-Mueller formalism. Our experimental results indicated that the time-resolved Mueller matrices could provide information about myocardial architectural alteration in stunned myocardium. Thus, the Stokes-Mueller measurement can be a useful method in cardiovascular research.