title: Measurement of red blood cell aggregation using X-ray phase contrast imaging.
abstract: When a coherent beam illuminates spatially disordered particles, speckle patterns are formed due to interference of the scattered light waves. Speckle patterns from biological tissues using synchrotron phase contrast X-ray imaging can provide functional information about micro-scale morphological structures of the tissues. In this study, we investigated the size and contrast variations of the speckles of aggregated red blood cells (RBCs) suspensions with varying the degree of RBC aggregation. Results show that the degree of RBC aggregation is a governing parameter on the change of speckle characteristics. This blood speckle analysis method can be used as a novel modality for monitoring RBC aggregation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31, Hyoja-dong, Pohang 790-784, Korea. sjlee@postech.ac.kr
authors.forename: Sang Joon
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hojin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Kweon-Ho
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Nam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004903:Erythrocyte Aggregation / Q000502:physiology*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008858:Microscopy, Phase-Contrast / Q000379:methods*; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction / Q000379:methods*