title: In vivo microscopy of hemozoin: towards a needle free diagnostic for malaria.
abstract: Clinical diagnosis of malaria suffers from poor specificity leading to overtreatment with antimalarial medications. Alternatives, like blood smear microscopy or antigen-based tests, require a blood sample. We investigate in vivo microscopy as a needle-free malaria diagnostic. Two optical signatures, birefringence and absorbance, of the endogenous malaria by-product hemozoin were evaluated as in vivo optical biomarkers. Hemozoin birefringence was difficult to detect in highly scattering tissue; however, hemozoin absorbance was observed in increasingly complex biological environments and detectable over a clinically-relevant range of parasitemia in vivo in a P. yoelii-infected mouse model of malaria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77006, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Burnett
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77006, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Carns
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77006, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Richards-Kortum
keywords: (170.0180) Microscopy; (170.1470) Blood or tissue constituent monitoring; (260.1440) Birefringence