23 research outputs found
Determination of volume, shape and refractive index of individual blood platelets
Light scattering patterns (LSP) of blood platelets were theoretically and
experimentally analyzed. We used spicular spheroids as a model for the
platelets with pseudopodia. The discrete dipole approximation was employed to
simulate light scattering from an individual spicular spheroid constructed from
a homogeneous oblate spheroid and 14 rectilinear parallelepipeds rising from
the cell centre. These parallelepipeds have a weak effect on the LSP over the
measured angular range. Therefore, a homogeneous oblate spheroid was taken as a
simplified optical model for platelets. Using the T-matrix method, we computed
the LSP over a range of volumes, aspect ratios and refractive indices. Measured
LSPs of individual platelets were compared one by one with the theoretical set
and the best fit was taken to characterize the measured platelets, resulting in
distributions of volume, aspect ratio and refractive index.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure