Photoacoustic Flow Cytometry for Single Sickle Cell Detection In Vitro and In Vivo

Figure 5

PA imaging of nRBCs and sRBCs in vitro. (a, b) PA images of nRBCs (a) and sRBCs (b) in glass slides. (c) The dependence of PA signal amplitudes on laser energy fluence for single RBCs with different states and shapes demonstrating linear behavior for nRBCs and round sRBCs and nonlinear signal amplification for sRBCs with deformed shape. Data represents average PA signals from 50 cells. (d) PA images of two sRBCs at relatively high energy fluence demonstrating more profound nonlinear nanobubble-based amplification of PA signals from sRBC with deformed shape. Laser parameters: wavelength, 532 nm (a–d); energy fluence, 50 mJ/cm² (a, b) and 400 mJ/cm² (d).

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