Spatiotemporal characterization of a fibrin clot using quantitative phase imaging
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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.
