Investigating the Kinetics of Blood Coagulation Using High-Frequency Ultrasound

Blood circulation requires regulated clot formation and breakdown to prevent blood loss following an injury and to ensure that clots do not form and circulate within the vasculature. Known as hemostasis, this delicate balance between coagulant and anti-coagulant pathways can be disrupted by disease, medication, or trauma, and may lead to morbidity or mortality. Current in vitro hemostatic tests have shown promise as tools for diagnosis and risk assessment in certain disorders. However, these tests are limited in their ability to assess the complete hemostatic process or are restricted to studies of blood plasma. In this work, high frequency ultrasound is proposed as a method of assessing hemostasis in whole blood samples. A system was developed and experiments were performed by monitoring acoustic changes in mouse blood during coagulation. Blood cell motion and frequency dependant changes in ultrasound intensity were found to be sensitive to the kinetics of clot formation