Viscosity Monitoring During Hemodiluted Blood Coagulation Using Optical Coherence Elastography

Rapid and accurate clot diagnostic systems are needed for the assessment of hemodiluted blood coagulation. We develop a real-time optical coherence elastography (OCE) system, which measures the attenuation coefficient of a compressional wave induced by a piezoelectric transducer (PZT) in a drop of blood, for the determination of viscous properties during the dynamic whole blood coagulation process. The changes in the viscous properties increase the attenuation coefficient of the sample. Consequently, a dynamic blood coagulation status can be monitored by relating changes of the attenuation coefficient to clinically relevant coagulation metrics, including the initial coagulation time and the clot formation rate. This system was used to characterize the influence of activator kaolin and the influence of hemodilution with either NaCl 0.9% or hydroxyethyl starch 6% on blood coagulation. The results show that PZT-OCE is sensitive to coagulation abnormalities and is able to characterize blood coagulation status based on viscosity-related attenuation coefficient measurements. The PZT-OCE can be used as a point-of-care testing tool for diagnosis of coagulation disorders and the monitoring of therapies.