Lecturer: Prof. Dvir Yelin
Affiliation: The Biomedical Optics Laboratory
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Abstract:
Measuring the composition of a patient blood is
often the first step in clinical diagnosis, and is
most commonly performed by extracting a
blood sample for laboratory analysis that
provides invaluable information on patient
condition. The use of invasive blood extraction
is often problematic with chronic patients,
infants, and patients with needle phobia.
Moreover, in areas with poor accessibility to
large healthcare facilities and poor sanitary
conditions, blood tests become challenging due
to high risk of infection, sample contamination,
and long waits for the test results that delay
optimal treatment. Several technologies exist
for measuring single blood parameters (oxygen
saturation, hemoglobin etc.) without using
needles; however, these techniques suffer from
low accuracy, large variability between patients
of different skin color, and provide only a few
parameters that are often insufficient even for
initial diagnosis.
A novel optical encoding technology, recently
developed by our research group, allows high-
resolution confocal microscopy of individual
blood cells flowing within small blood vessels in
the oral mucosa. The technique uses encoded
imaging that allows real-time microscopy of a
transverse line within a blood vessel, resulting
in a detailed image of the passing blood cells,
which is then analyzed to produce a
measurement of the blood content and cell
morphology. Our blood microscope technology
could be incorporated into a laptop-sized
instrument with a small handheld probe that is
placed against the patient’s lips. Based on the
subcellular-resolution image data, the system
can test blood noninvasively with no needles or
hazardous waste, no risk of infection, and
within a few minutes.