title: Monitoring of heparin concentration in serum by Raman spectroscopy within hollow core photonic crystal fiber.
abstract: The feasibility of using hollow core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) in conjunction with Raman spectroscopy has been explored for real time monitoring of heparin concentration in serum. Heparin is an important blood anti-coagulant whose precise monitoring and controlling in patients undergoing cardiac surgery and dialysis is of utmost importance. Our method of heparin monitoring offers a novel alternative to existing clinical procedures in terms of accuracy, response time and sample volume. The optical design configuration simply involves a 785-nm laser diode whose light is coupled into HC-PCF filled with heparin-serum mixtures. By non-selectively filling HC-PCF, a strong modal field overlap is obtained. Consequently, an enhanced Raman signal (>90 times) is obtained from various heparin-serum mixtures filled HC-PCFs compared to its bulk counterpart (cuvette). The present scheme has the potential to serve as a 'generic biosensing tool' for diagnosing a wide range of biological samples.
authors.affiliation: School of Information Technology and Engineering, University of Ottawa, 800 King Edward, PO Box 450, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada. akhet035@uottawa.ca
authors.forename: Altaf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khetani
authors.forename: Vidhu S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.forename: Alaa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harb
authors.forename: Hanan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Anis
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000097:blood; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003460:Crystallization; D004867:Equipment Design; D006493:Heparin / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007834:Lasers; D017785:Photons; D012031:Refractometry; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D044967:Serum / Q000737:chemistry; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*; D013903:Thoracic Surgery / Q000379:methods; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants; D014867:Water; D006493:Heparin