Effect of pH on optical properties during blood coagulation progress by optical coherence tomography

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been used to evaluate blood coagulation process and is proved efficiently by using OCT signal slope and 1/e light penetration depth (D <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1/e</sub> ). The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of pH on the two optical properties of whole blood during in vitro clot formation under static by optical coherence tomography. After the addition of 0.9% (w/v) sodium chloride solution with pH=6, 7, 8, 9, OCT signal slope (OCTSS) have a total decrease of 6.98%, 4.07%, 4.16%, 3.69% after 60-min coagulation, and the blood clotting time are 985, 1041, 1065, 967, respectively. Our results suggest that when blood pH was lower or higher than normal value, the blood clotting time shows a decrease and the process of blood coagulation appears abnormal.