Presentations

Detection of Primary Stages of Intravascular Blood Coagulation by Acoustic Methods

Uzlova S.G., Guria K.G.1, Shevelev А.A., Vasiliev S.А., Guria G.Th

National Hematology Research Centre, Novii Zykovskii 4а, Moscow, 125167, Russia, +7(499)761-13-71, E-mail: uzelokk@mail.ru

Abnormalities of blood coagulation cause serious pathological complications. Nowadays accessible laboratory analyses of blood coagulation status have a number of severe shortcomings. First of all invasiveness of existing method does not allow to con-duct tests very often. However in a number of pathologies parameters of blood coagula-tion system (BCS) can change significantly within an hour or even faster. In the second place blood probe can characterise only general BCS abnormalities. As a result local co-agulation associated with inflammation, oncology or vascular disease can remain unno-ticed. And last but not least analyses processing lasts for about an hour, what can be cru-cial when immediate medical help is needed.

As a result there is a desperate need for a continuous noninvasive method for BCS observation. It is understood that registration of yet reversible early stages of coagulation processes is considered as the most important.

In the present work we describe our attempts to apply ultrasonic methods for detec-tion of primary stages of intravascular coagulation. We discovered that processes of formation of microagregates at early stages of blood coagulation are accompanied by acoustic contrast. Significant and rapid rise of intensity of reflected ultrasonic signal was found to occur simultaneously with appearance of optically detectible microclots. Beside these in vitro experiments we conducted clinical observation over patients in our Centre. As a result we recorded echo-contrast effects in vessels. Generally, echo-contrast local-ization was near the centre of a pathological inflammation. At the same time these pa-tients’ blood tests showed noticeable increase of blood coagulability.

In our opinion the results of experiments show a principal opportunity to use acoustic methods for nonivasive coagulography. Comparison of experimental and clini-cal data allows us to conclude that the increased echogenesity of blood can be used as a risk index for intravascular coagulation. Further experimental and clinical research will allow us to determine fields of application, to investigate stages in formation of intravas-cular blood clots and to estimate efficiency and features of action of different coagu-lologic drugs in intensive flows.

The work was supported by the grant RFBR № 07-04-01523-а.