Development of an Optical Method for the Evaluation of Whole Blood Coagulation

Abstract

Blood coagulation is a defense mechanism, which is activated in case of blood loss, due to vessel damage, or other injury. Pathological cases arise from malfunctions of the blood coagulation mechanism, and rapid growth of clots results in partially or even fully blocked blood vessel. The aim of this work is to characterize blood coagulation, by analyzing the time-dependent structural properties of whole blood, using an inexpensive design and robust processing approaches. The methods used in this work include brightfield microscopy and image processing techniques, applied on finger-prick blood samples. The blood samples were produced and directly utilized in custom-made glass microchannels. Color images were captured via a microscopy-camera setup for a period of 35 min, utilizing three different magnifications. Statistical information was extracted directly from the color components and the binary conversions of the images. The main advantage in the current work lies on a Boolean classification approach utilized on the binary data, which enabled to identify the interchange between specific structural elements of blood, namely the red blood cells, the plasma and the clotted regions, as a result of the clotting process. Coagulation indices produced included a bulk coagulation index, a plasma-reduction based index and a clot formation index. The results produced with the inexpensive design and the low computational complexity in the current approach, show good agreement with the literature, and a great potential for a robust characterization of blood coagulation.

Space-time-regulated imaging analyzer for smart coagulation diagnosis

“…After blood injection, the good seal of the chip was realized by oil sealing 20 ( Figure S2 ). The fluorescent characterization was then performed to clearly and dynamically display the on-chip blood clotting process.…”

“…The 100 μL of blood sample was incubated with 5 μL 0.2 mg/mL PE anti-human CD41 Antibody (sigma) and 0.13 μL 2 μg/mL Alexa Fluor™ 488 fibrinogen (Thermo Fisher) in the dark at room temperature for 15 min. The fluorescent images of blood clotting (room temperature: 26°C) 20 , 53 , 54 were captured via a confocal microscope (Nikon, A1R).…”

“…Currently, a series of good studies about optofluidic imaging systems combined artificial intelligence (AI) for smart disease diagnosing are gradually emerging, 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 which implies a potential possibility of combining optical imaging and AI technologies for convenient and accurate smart blood coagulation function diagnoses. Blood clotting is a continuous process that includes clotting activation, formation, and densification, and the patients differ in the rate and intensity of each process.…”

Valve-Adjustable Optofluidic Bio-Imaging Platform for Progressive Stenosis Investigation

“…The optical images of the blood flow field were collected by a microscope (Nikon, A1R, 10 × objective lens) and then processed through contrast limited histogram equalization (clipLimit: 2, tileGridSize: 70). − The enhanced images were converted into grayscale images by the channel splitting. The formula for grayscale processing of the images is Y ( x , y ) = ( 0.299 × R false( x , y false) + 0.587 × G false( x , y false) + 0.114 × B false( x , y false) ) where R ( x , y ), G ( x , y ), and B ( x , y ) are the RGB color components of point( x , y ); the acquired grayscale value was then used to optically quantify the blood flow field. − ,, …”

High-resolution characterization of the coagulation and drying processes of whole blood based on optical coherence tomography

“…In order to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks, a number of methods have been presented for coagulation assessment in whole blood, including thromboelastometry (TEG) [9,10], laser speckle rheology (LSR) [11][12][13][14], brightfield microscopy combined with image processing techniques [15], electrical impedance measurement based on a microfluidic chip [16], OCTbased measurement including penetration depth [17,18], magnetomotive optical coherence tomography [19], optical coherence elastography [20], and autocorrelation analysis [21]. However, these techniques cannot provide the spatial heterogeneity of whole blood during the coagulation procedure since blood coagulation is a spatially non-uniform and non-random process [22].…”