title: Analysis and differentiation of seminal plasma via polarized SERS spectroscopy.
abstract: Polarized surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy was applied for obtaining biochemical information about the seminal plasma. The effect of different laser polarizations (nonpolarized, linear-polarized, right-handed circularly polarized, and left-handed circularly polarized) on seminal plasma SERS spectroscopy was explored for the first time. The diagnostic performance in differentiating abnormal seminal plasma (n = 37) from normal seminal plasma (n = 24) was evaluated. A combination of principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was employed to develop diagnostic algorithms. Classification results of different laser polarizations demonstrated different diagnostic sensitivities and specificities, among which, left-handed circularly polarized laser excitation showed the best diagnostic result (95.8% sensitivity and 64.9% specificity). Our exploratory study demonstrated that SERS spectroscopy with left-handed circularly polarized laser excitation has the potential for becoming a new diagnostic method in semen-quality assessment.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Opto-Electronic Science and Technology for Medicine of Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Photonics Technology, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiwen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zufang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Shangyuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Jinhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Haishan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D012031:Refractometry / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012661:Semen / Q000737:chemistry*; D055101:Semen Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*