Characterizing thrombus with multiple red blood cell compositions by optical coherence tomography attenuation coefficient. Issue 3 (17th December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Hsiao‐Chuan; Abbasi, Mehdi; Ding, Yong Hong; Polley, Eric C.; Fitzgerald, Seán; Kadirvel, Ramanathan; Kallmes, David F.; Brinjikji, Waleed; Urban, Matthew W.
• Is Part Of: Journal of biophotonics. Volume 14:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2020-12-17
• Subjects: biomarker -- ischemic stroke -- mechanical thrombectomy -- optical attenuation coefficient -- optical coherence tomography -- thrombus; Photonics -- Periodicals; Optical materials -- Periodicals; Optics -- Periodicals; Medical instruments and apparatus -- Periodicals; 621.3605
• DOI: 10.1002/jbio.202000364
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1864-063X

Abstract

Abstract: Embolectomy is one of the emergency procedures performed to remove emboli. Assessing the composition of human blood clots is an important diagnostic factor and could provide guidance for an appropriate treatment strategy for interventional physicians. Immunostaining has been used to identity compositions of clots as a gold‐standard procedure, but it is time‐consuming and cannot be performed in situ. Here, we proposed that the optical attenuation coefficient of optical coherence tomography (OCT) can be a reliable indicator as a new imaging modality to differentiate clot compositions. Fifteen human blood clots with multiple red blood cell (RBC) compositions from 21% to 95% were prepared using healthy human whole blood. A homogeneous gelatin phantom experiment and numerical simulation based on the Lambert–Beer's law were examined to verify the validity of the attenuation coefficient estimation. The results displayed that optical attenuation coefficients were strongly correlated with RBC compositions. We reported that attenuation coefficients could be a promising biomarker to guide the choice of an appropriate interventional device in a clinical setting and assist in characterizing blood clots. Abstract : Thromboembolism in a blood vessel can cause high morbidity and mortality. Embolectomy is one of the emergency procedures performed to remove emboli. However, the surgical devices such as aspiration or stent retriever are empirically selected. An inappropriate selection of surgical devices can influence the success rate during embolectomy. Evaluating attenuation coefficients by using OCT would be a promising biomarker to provide a suitable treatment strategy in a clinical setting and assist diagnostic of human blood clot pathology.