Digital holographic microscopy as a screening technology for diabetes

Abstract

Label-free quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is the hallmark of digital holographic microscopy (DHM). One of the most interesting medical applications of QPI-DHM is that it can be used to analyze illnesses in which the refractive index or/and the morphology of cells/tissues are distorted, from the acquisition of a single image. In this contribution, we obtain the phase maps of red blood cells (RBCs) samples of patients suffering from diabetes mellitus type 1 (DM1) by using a DHM. Our experimental results show that the measured phase values are significantly different between control non-diabetic and diabetic patients. The high correlation coefficient between the phase and the glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) values determined by the gold standard method to screen diabetes and the clear separation between the two groups indicate that DHM may potentially be used to evaluate long-term glycemic control in diabetic patients as well as to diagnose diabetes.