A method for assessing the condition of a tissue sample includes the steps of:1. illuminating the sample with incident electromagnetic radiation exhibiting P polarization types,2. for each of the P polarization types, inspecting the scattered incident radiation for at least one and possibly all of Q polarization types3. establishing a transfer function M relating the intensity of the P polarization types of the incident radiation to the intensity of the polarization types for which the scattered radiation was inspected4. comparing the established transfer function to one or more reference transfer functions and5. reaching a conclusion about the condition of the tissue sample based on the comparison.
