The blood coagulation system (BCS) is a complex biological system playing a principal role in the maintenance of haemostasis. Insufficient activity of the BCS may lead to bleeding and blood loss (e.g. in the case of haemophilia). On the other hand, excessive activity may cause intravascular blood coagulation, thromboses and embolization. Most of the methods currently used for BCS monitoring suffer from the major disadvantage of being invasive. The purpose of the present work is to demonstrate the feasibility of using ultrasonic methods for non-invasive registration of the early stages of blood coagulation processes in intensive flows. With this purpose, a special experimental set-up was designed, facilitating the simultaneous detection of optical and acoustic signals during the clotting process. It was shown that (i) as microemboli appear in the flow during the early stage of blood coagulation, the intensity of the Doppler signal increases twofold, and (ii) microemboli formation in the early stages of blood clotting always reveals itself through an acoustic contrast. Both of these effects are well defined, so we hope that they may be used for non-invasive BCS monitoring in clinical practice.

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This Issue

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences cover image

13 October 2008

Volume 366Issue 1880

Theme Issue ‘Biomedical applications of systems biology and biological physics’ compiled by Erik Mosekilde and Peter A. Tass

Article Information

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2008.0109
Published by:Royal Society
Print ISSN:1364-503X
Online ISSN:1471-2962

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Published online21/07/2008
Published in print13/10/2008

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biophysics