Nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. experience an incident of stroke each year; ~80% of these are first time occurrences and ~87% are ischemic in nature. Someone dies of a stroke every few minutes in the U.S. but despite its prevalence there have been minimal advances in the early detection and screening of thromboembolic events, especially during patient post-operative periods or in genetically predisposed individuals. Environmental or genetic factors may disrupt the balance between coagulation and lysis of micro-thrombi in circulation and increase the risk of stroke. We introduced here a novel in vivo multicolor negative-contrast photoacoustic (PA) flow cytometry (PAFC ) platform with many innovations including customized high pulse repetition rate 1064 laser from IPG Photonics Corporation, powerful laser diode array, multichannel optical schematic, and time-resolved recording system. Using animal models, we verified the potential of this technology to detect small clots in relatively large vessels in vivo. If future clinical trials using a cost-effective, easy-to-use, safe, watch-like, wearable PA probe are successful, PAFC could provide breakthroughs in early monitoring of the growth in size and number of small clots that may predict and potentially prevent fatal thromboembolic complications. We also believe that this technology could be utilized to assess therapeutic benefits of anticoagulants and develop more efficient dosage in treatments by analyzing changes in the composition and frequency of micro-thrombi
|