Noncontact coagulation monitoring based on blood dynamics analysis using optical coherence tomography

Coagulation tests are essential for diagnosis of blood disorders and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Here, we developed a noncontact method for quantitative assessment of coagulation properties based on blood diffusion dynamics analysis using optical coherence tomography (OCT). After a blood sample was loaded into a centrifuge tube, an OCT Mscan was captured at a single lateral location. Then the amplitude components of the complex OCT sequences were extracted for autocorrelation analysis. The length of the OCT sequence was optimized for the autocorrelation calculation. The blood dynamics related to scattering particle diffusion were evaluated by the autocorrelation decay over the time delay. The results show that the OCT autocorrelation analysis can quantitatively assess the blood coagulation properties without contact. Therefore, it could be used for in situ monitoring and point-of-care testing of blood coagulation with high reliability.