Detection and characterization of red blood cell (RBC) aggregation with photoacoustics

Eno Hysi; Ratan K. Saha; Min Rui; Michael C. Kolios

doi:10.1117/12.908685

23 February 2012 Detection and characterization of red blood cell (RBC) aggregation with photoacoustics

Eno Hysi, Ratan K. Saha, Min Rui, Michael C. Kolios

Proceedings Volume 8223, Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2012; 82233E (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.908685
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2012, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Red blood cells (RBCs) aggregate in the presence of increased plasma fibrinogen and low shear forces during blood flow. RBC aggregation has been observed in deep vein thrombosis, sepsis and diabetes. We propose using photoacoustics (PA) as a non-invasive imaging modality to detect RBC aggregation. The theoretical and experimental feasibility of PA for detecting and characterizing aggregation was assessed. A simulation study was performed to generate PA signals from non-aggregated and aggregated RBCs using a frequency domain approach and to study the PA signals' dependence on hematocrit and aggregate size. The effect of the finite bandwidth nature of transducers on the PA power spectra was also investigated. Experimental confirmation of theoretical results was conducted using porcine RBC samples exposed to 1064 nm optical wavelength using the Imagio Small Animal PA imaging system (Seno Medical Instruments, Inc., San Antonio, TX). Aggregation was induced with Dextran-70 (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) and the effect of hematocrit and aggregation level was investigated. The theoretical and experimental PA signal amplitude increased linearly with increasing hematocrit. The theoretical dominant frequency content of PA signals shifted towards lower frequencies (<30 MHz) and 9 dB enhancements in spectral power were observed as the size of aggregates increased compared to non-aggregating RBCs. Calibration of the PA spectra with the transducer response obtained from a 200 nm gold film was performed to remove system dependencies. Analysis of the spectral parameters from the calibrated spectra suggested that PA can assess the degree of aggregation at multiple hematocrit and aggregation levels.

Citation Download Citation

Eno Hysi, Ratan K. Saha, Min Rui, and Michael C. Kolios "Detection and characterization of red blood cell (RBC) aggregation with photoacoustics", Proc. SPIE 8223, Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2012, 82233E (23 February 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.908685

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