Holographic Method for Blood Cell Imaging

Abstract

Human blood cells (erythrocytes) were imaged by the digital holographic interference microscope (DHIM) without any preparation. DHIM represents an effective technique for 3D imaging of phase microscopic objects and measurement of their morphological parameters. It has been detected that, in addition to hematological diseases, the diseases of different genesis and external factors serve as the reason for the morphological modification of blood erythrocytes.transform phase information into intensity modulation or into curvature of interference fringes, which can be detected by eye or photosensitive media. Since the problem of the 3-D visualization of phase microobjects has not been solved in classical microscopy, 3-D imaging of phase microobjects have been limited to electron microscopy. Unfortunately, this method is "destructive". Holography opened up new possibilities in microscopy of phase microobjects and resulted in the appearance of holographic analogs of the classical methods, which have some advantages. A combination of holographic microscopy and the methods for digital image processing has led to the new stage in microscopy. This makes it possible to realize the 3D visualization of phase microobjects. The first digital holographic interference microscope (DHIM), which allows the real-time 3D imaging of phase microobjects and the quantitative measurements of their parameters, has been created at the Laboratory of Holography, Kharkov National Holography Opens up New PossibilitiesCells of a living organism are phase microobjects. Such microobjects almost do not change the intensity of radiation transmitted through them, and cannot be observed using the methods of classical microscopy. Special methods are used in classical microscopy for noninvasive visualization of phase microobjects. They are the Zernike phase-contrast method and the interference contrast method. These two contrast methods allow to

Combining the polarization-contrast and interference-contrast methods for three-dimensional visualization of anisotropic microobjects

“…The first digital holographic interference microscope (DHIM), which makes it possible in real time to obtain three-dimensional images of phase microobjects and to measure their geometrical parameters, was used to investigate the three-dimensional morphology of erythrocytes and thin films. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Among phase microobjects, those that possess the property of anisotropy and that change the polarization state of the radiation transmitted through them constitute a special group. The polarization-contrast method is used to study such microobjects in optical microscopy, making it possible to obtain the images of microobjects with higher quality and resolution than is achieved in the phase-contrast and interference-contrast methods.…”