Department of Electronics and Information Engineering, Korea University, Sejong, Republic of Korea.
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Korea University Ansan Hospital, Ansan, Republic of Korea.
Biosens Bioelectron. 2015 May 15;67:715-23. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2014.10.040. Epub 2014 Oct 18.
Recent advances in lens-free shadow imaging technology have enabled a new class of cell imaging platform, which is a suitable candidate for point-of-care facilities. In this paper, we firstly demonstrate a compact and low-cost telemedicine device providing automated cell and particle size measurement based on lens-free shadow imaging technology. Using the generated shadow (or diffraction) patterns, the proposed approach can detect and measure the sizes of more than several hundreds of micro-objects simultaneously within a single digital image frame. In practical experiments, we defined four types of shadow parameters extracted from each micro-object shadow pattern, and found that a specific shadow parameter (peak-to-peak distance, PPD) demonstrated a linear relationship with the actual micro-object sizes. By using this information, a new algorithm suitable for operation on both a personal computer (PC) and a cell phone was also developed, providing automated size detection of poly-styrenemicro-beads and biological cells such as red blood cells, MCF-7, HepG2, and HeLa. Results from the proposed device were compared with those of a conventional optical microscope, demonstrating good agreement between two approaches. In contrast to other existing cell and particle size measurement approaches, such as Coulter counter, flow-cytometer, particle-size analyzer, and optical microscope, this device can provide accurate cell and particle size information with a 2 µm maximum resolution, at almost no cost (less than 100 USD), within a compact instrumentation size (9.3×9.0×9.0 cm(3)), and in a rapid manner (within 1 min). The proposed lens-free automated particle and cell size measurement device, based on shadow imaging technology, can be utilized as a powerful tool for many cell and particle handling procedures, including environmental, pharmaceutical, biological, and clinical applications.
基于无透镜阴影成像技术的最新进展，已经实现了一种新型的细胞成像平台，非常适合在即时医疗设施中使用。在本文中，我们首次展示了一种紧凑且低成本的远程医疗设备，该设备基于无透镜阴影成像技术提供自动细胞和颗粒尺寸测量功能。通过生成的阴影（或衍射）图案，该方法可以在单个数字图像帧中同时检测和测量数百个以上微物体的尺寸。在实际实验中，我们定义了从每个微物体阴影图案中提取的四种阴影参数，并发现特定的阴影参数（峰到峰距离，PPD）与实际微物体尺寸呈线性关系。利用该信息，还开发了一种适用于个人计算机（PC）和手机操作的新算法，实现了对聚苯乙烯微珠以及生物细胞（如红细胞、MCF-7、HepG2 和 HeLa）的自动尺寸检测。所提出设备的结果与传统光学显微镜的结果进行了比较，两种方法之间具有良好的一致性。与其他现有的细胞和颗粒尺寸测量方法（如库尔特计数器、流式细胞仪、颗粒尺寸分析仪和光学显微镜）相比，该设备可以以 2 µm 的最大分辨率提供准确的细胞和颗粒尺寸信息，成本几乎可以忽略不计（低于 100 美元），仪器尺寸紧凑（9.3×9.0×9.0 cm(3)），测量速度快（1 分钟内）。基于阴影成像技术的无透镜自动颗粒和细胞尺寸测量设备可以作为许多细胞和颗粒处理程序的强大工具，包括环境、制药、生物和临床应用。
