title: A simulation study on photoacoustic signals from red blood cells.
abstract: A two dimensional simulation study was performed to investigate the photoacoustic signal properties of non-aggregated and aggregated erythrocytes. Spatial distributions of non-aggregated blood samples were generated by employing a Monte Carlo method and aggregated blood samples were simulated using a hexagonal packing scheme. For the non-aggregating case photoacoustic signals demonstrated a monotonic rise with hematocrit. For the aggregating case it was found that spectral (<20 MHz) intensity increased (11 dB at 15.6 MHz) when the aggregate size increased. This study strongly suggests that the assessment of erythrocyte aggregation level in human blood might be possible by using a photoacoustic spectroscopic method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B2K3, Canada.
authors.forename: Ratan K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Saha
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Kolios
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption; D000162:Acoustics; D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004903:Erythrocyte Aggregation; D004909:Erythrocyte Indices / Q000528:radiation effects; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000528:radiation effects; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007834:Lasers; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D011312:Pressure; D014463:Ultrasonography