Poly(ethylene glycol) [PEG] microparticles were doped with ceramic or latex nanoparticles in order to examine domain-size and refractive index effects of nanometer-sized guest inclusions on two-dimensional diffraction patterns, Composite microparticles were examined for different inclusion sizes and polymer/nanoparticle weight ratios in order to determine the size and number-density threshold of detection for guest nanoparticles within the polymer host as indicated by fringe distortion in 2-D angular scattering. PEG host particles having a 10 mu m (nominal) diameter were formed with three different guest nanoparticles (Al2O3, TiO2 and latex nanospheres with respective sizes of 46, 29, and 14 nm), For the ceramic nanoparticle inclusions, distortion was observed at relative guest-host weight fractions of 5-10%. For the 14 nm latex inclusions, no distortion was observed at any weight fraction. A perturbation method was used to simulate the effect of nanometer-size inclusions on 2-D optical diffraction from polymer host microparticles and to suggest how the distortions should vary with inclusion size, refractive index, and number.