A method is provided for observing a biological sample between a light source and a pixelated image sensor, the light emitting an incident light beam, which propagates to the sample along a propagation axis and at an emission wavelength, the method including: illuminating the sample with the source; and acquiring an image of the sample with the sensor, no image-forming optic being placed between the sample and the sensor, the sample absorbing some of the beam, such that the acquired image is representative of an absorption of the beam by the sample at the emission wavelength, the source illuminates an area of the sample larger than 1 mm.sup.2, the image acquired of the sample by the sensor corresponds to an area of sample larger than 1 mm.sup.2, and pixels of the sensor define a detection plane, the sample being placed at a distance from the plane smaller than 1 mm.

One variation of the method for managing blood loss of a patient includes: receiving an image of a physical sample; extracting a feature from an area of the image corresponding to the physical sample; estimating a blood volume indicator of the physical sample according to the extracted feature; estimating a patient blood loss based on the blood volume indicator; estimating a euvolemic patient hematocrit based on an estimated patient blood volume and the estimated patient blood loss; receiving a measured patient hematocrit; and generating a volemic status indicator based on a comparison between the measured patient hematocrit and the estimated euvolemic patient hematocrit.

An immersion probe system is provided for simultaneously performing first analysis of a first portion of light originating from liquids and/or particles in a fluid and second analysis of a second portion of the light originating from the liquids and/or particles. The system defines an optical axis and includes a first component including a first analyzer, a window, and a first optical path extending between the window and the first analyzer. The system also includes a second component including a second analyzer, the window, and a second optical path extending between the window and the second analyzer. The system further includes a spectral selector placed in the first optical path and in the second optical path to direct the first portion of the light, which originates from the liquids and/or particles and passes through the window, to the first analyzer, and to direct the second portion of said light to the second analyzer. The system includes an illumination path that delivers illumination light or lights based on a beam(s) that passes through the window at an oblique or normal angle to the optical axis. The first component and the second component share a common optical path at least between the window and the spectral selector.

The present application relates to a method for the cytometric analysis of multiple cell samples by a microscope for examining multiple cell samples under a microscope, wherein the microscope can be or is operated, selectively and/or alternatingly, in a transmission mode and/or in a fluorescence mode, and wherein at least one cell sample has at least one fluorescence marker. The method includes; moving the cell samples continuously in one plane relative to an optical system of the microscope having at least one microscope camera, wherein, during the movement of the cell samples, at least one or more images of a sub-region of the cell samples are recorded in the transmission mode or in the fluorescence mode and at least one or more images of the same sub-region of the cell samples are recorded in the fluorescence mode by at least one microscope camera.

An apparatus for nondestructive detection of transparent or reflective objects in a vessel includes an imager configured to acquire data that represent light reflected from spatial locations in the vessel as a function of time, a memory operably coupled to the imager and configured to store the data, and a processor operably coupled to the memory and configured to detect the objects based on the data by (i) identifying a respective maximum amount of reflected light, over time, for each location in the spatial locations based on the data representing light reflected from the spatial locations as a function of time, and (ii) determining a presence or absence of the objects in the vessel based on the number of spatial locations whose respective maximum amount of reflected light, over time, exceeds a predetermined value.

Techniques for identifying and enumerating candidate target cells within a biological fluid specimen are described. A digital image of the biological fluid specimen is received, and one or more candidate regions of pixels in the digital image are identified by identifying connected regions of pixels of a minimum intensity having a size between a minimum size and a maximum size and an aspect ratio that meets a threshold. For each candidate region of at least one of the one or more candidate region, whether the portion of the image corresponding to the candidate region includes more than a threshold number of intensity levels is determined. If the portion of the image corresponding to the candidate region includes more than the threshold number of intensity levels the portion of the image is continued to be treated as a candidate for classification.

A target cell statistical method, apparatus and system are provided. A cell image of a blood specimen is acquired by a cell image analysis apparatus. The blood specimen is derived from a blood sample to be tested. A number of target cells and a number of reference cells in the cell image are automatically identified by the cell image analysis apparatus. A number of reference cells in the blood sample to be tested is acquired by the cell image analysis apparatus, and a number of target cells in the blood sample to be tested is calculated by the cell image analysis apparatus, based on the number of target cells and the number of reference cells in the cell image and the number of reference cells in the blood sample to be tested.

A device for observing a biological sample is provided, including: a light source to emit a light beam at a wavelength between 1 μm and 20 μm; an image sensor including pixels defining a detection plane; a holder to hold the sample between the source and the sensor at a distance from the plane smaller than 1 mm, such that the source is configured to illuminate an area of the sample larger than 1 mm.sup.2, no image-forming optics are placed between the sample and the sensor, and the sensor is configured to acquire an image corresponding to an area of the sample larger than 1 mm.sup.2 and representative of an absorption of the beam by the sample at the wavelength; and a processor to determine a map of an amount of analyte in the sample, based on the image acquired by the sensor, the analyte absorbing light at the wavelength.

The present invention relates to a method of maturity classifying reticulocytes from a whole blood sample, comprising: staining the sample with a supravital agglutinating dyeing reagent or a fluorescent agglutinating dye; illuminating the stained sample with a light beam to detect reticulocytes; determining for each reticulocyte the parameters of (i) a fraction (Λ) of the reticulum area (Ar) to the whole cell area (Ac); and (ii) a fraction (Γ) of the perimeter of the reticulum (Ur) to the reticulum area (Ar); and maturity classifying a reticulocyte into 1 of 4 major maturity classes according to the values determined for Λ and Γ.

Provided is an apparatus for cell particle sorting based on microfluidic-chip flow, by using a design in which Dean flow focusing occurring in a spiral channel and hydrodynamic filtration are coupled. The apparatus comprises a first substrate including a spiral channel having an inner surface and an outer surface based on a radius of curvature, a sample solution inlet, a medium inlet, and a spiral inner-outlet and a spiral outer-outlet both for discharging the particles, and a second substrate including a main channel in which the sample solution discharged from the first substrate and passing through an inter-substrate way flows and a cut-off width W.sub.C is set, a side channel allowing a medium introduced into the medium inlet to flow to focus the sample solution on a sidewall of the main channel, a plurality of branch channels connected to the sidewall of main channel and configured to receive the particles from the main channel, a main channel outlet, and at least one branch channel outlet.