Blood coagulation monitoring under static and flow conditions with optical coherence tomography autocorrelation analysis

Abstract

Detection of blood coagulation functions is essential for diagnosing blood diseases and treating vascular diseases. The viscoelasticity changes of the blood from a liquid to a clot can provide critical information for assessing blood coagulation. Here, we reported on noncontact monitoring of blood coagulation under static and flow conditions with optical coherence tomography (OCT) autocorrelation analysis. After OCT imaging, blood tissue dynamics were assessed by the OCT autocorrelation analysis during coagulation of the whole porcine blood. The properties of blood coagulation were quantitatively evaluated by three metrics, including the coagulation reaction time, the clot formation duration, and the maximum clot strength. The results show that the OCT autocorrelation method can quantify the coagulation properties under static and flow conditions and provides a unique opportunity for in situ coagulation detection and point-of-care testing.