Spatiotemporal Characterization of a Fibrin Clot Using Quantitative Phase Imaging

Rajshekhar Gannavarpu, Basanta Bhaduri, Krishnarao Tangella, and Gabriel Popescu
PLoS One 2014 9(11) e111381 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111381

Studying the dynamics of fibrin clot formation and its morphology is an important problem in biology and has significant impact for several scientific and clinical applications. We present a label-free technique based on quantitative phase imaging to address this problem. Using quantitative phase information, we characterized fibrin polymerization in real-time and present a mathematical model describing the transition from liquid to gel state. By exploiting the inherent optical sectioning capability of our instrument, we measured the three-dimensional structure of the fibrin clot. From this data, we evaluated the fractal nature of the fibrin network and extracted the fractal dimension. Our non-invasive and speckle-free approach analyzes the clotting process without the need for external contrast agents.