This Holographic Microscope Can Diagnose Asthma From A Drop Of Blood

Asthma is challenging to identify, especially when the patients are at a young age. So far, the most effective way to diagnose it is to test for other conditions and then rule them out. The earlier the diagnosis, the better for treatment.

The challenge to diagnosing asthma may soon be gone as experts of The Fraunhofer EMB and some tech firms are developing a special holographic microscope, or you may have heard of it under the name cell scanner, which is capable of 3D tracking immune cells, with results yielded in real-time.

The microscope consists of an optical and an LED CMOS image sensor. The two of them are connected to computer software.

Here is how the device works. First, the substance that causes the inflammatory stimulus and blood of the patient will be placed on cartridge under the holographic microscope. After that, the immune cells in the blood is observed for around one and a half hour.

The photos taken during the process will then be analyzed by special algorithms, which can identify the typical patterns of the movement patterns of cells. The movement will help to determine if the patient suffers from asthma or not.

To ensure the statistical precision, a large number of cells are observed at the same time, the number ranges from 2000 to 3000.

The deviations of the patterns are identified by AI. The machine learning is trained with a huge database, helping it identifying patterns and tell a healthy individual from a patient suffering from asthma.

According to the team, the holographic microscope can be effective in diagnosing other conditions, including rheumatism, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis.