Deep Learning-Enhanced Analysis for Delineating Anticoagulant Essay Efficacy Using Phase Microscopy
This addresses the challenge of reliable diagnostic testing in hematology by providing a label-free, non-invasive method for high-throughput screening of anticoagulants, though it is incremental as it applies existing deep learning techniques to a specific domain.
The paper tackled the problem of inaccurate hematological analysis due to blood coagulation by developing a deep learning-enhanced framework using Digital Holographic Microscopy to compare anticoagulant efficacy, finding that potassium ferric oxalate nanoparticles prevented coagulation without altering red blood cell morphology, unlike EDTA which caused changes within 6 hours.
The coagulation of blood after it is drawn from the body poses a significant challenge for hematological analysis, potentially leading to inaccurate test results and altered cellular characteristics, compromising diagnostic reliability. This paper presents a deep learning-enhanced framework for delineating anticoagulant efficacy ex vivo using Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM). We demonstrate a label-free, non-invasive approach for analyzing human blood samples, capable of accurate cell counting and morphological estimation. A DHM with an automated image processing and deep learning pipeline is built for morphological analysis of the blood cells under two different anti-coagulation agents, e.g. conventional EDTA and novel potassium ferric oxalate nanoparticles (KFeOx-NPs). This enables automated high-throughput screening of cells and estimation of blood coagulation rates when samples are treated with different anticoagulants. Results indicated that KFeOx-NPs prevented human blood coagulation without altering the cellular morphology of red blood cells (RBCs), whereas EDTA incubation caused notable changes within 6 hours of incubation. The system allows for quantitative analysis of coagulation dynamics by assessing parameters like cell clustering and morphology over time in these prepared samples, offering insights into the comparative efficacy and effects of anticoagulants outside the body.