Monitoring of size and dynamics of thrombus in artificial blood flow using laser speckle image analysis

The formation of thrombus in blood may be a cause of thrombosis which induces symptoms, such as myocardial infarction, cerebral infarction, and economy class syndrome. Recently, investigations on blood flows inside artificial blood vessel and artificial organ have been performed energetically for clinical application. Thus, in vitro monitoring of thrombogenesis in blood flow inside them is thought to be essential to optimize their function for stable blood perfusion in such as artificial dialysis system and blood transfusion system. In the present study, we propose a method for monitoring the size and dynamics of thrombus in artificial blood flow using speckle patterns obtained under the illumination of coherent light. We experimentally discuss the spatial and temporal variation information on speckle patterns in relation to the size and dynamics of thrombus, respectively, under illumination of a laser diode. The above information contributes to the quantification of degree of thrombogenesis. Experimental results show the feasibility of the present method for in vitro monitoring of the formation of thrombus in artificial blood flow.