Deep Learning-Enhanced Analysis for Delineating Anticoagulant Essay Efficacy Using Phase Microscopy

The coagulation of blood after it is drawn from the body poses a significant challenge for hematological analysis, potentially leading to inaccurate test results and altered cellular characteristics, compromising diagnostic reliability. This paper presents a deep learning-enhanced framework for delineating anticoagulant efficacy ex vivo using Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM). We demonstrate a label-free, non-invasive approach for analyzing human blood samples, capable of accurate cell counting and morphological estimation. A DHM with an automated image processing and deep learning pipeline is built for morphological analysis of the blood cells under two different anti-coagulation agents, e.g. conventional EDTA and novel potassium ferric oxalate nanoparticles (KFeOx-NPs). This enables automated high-throughput screening of cells and estimation of blood coagulation rates when samples are treated with different anticoagulants. Results indicated that KFeOx-NPs prevented human blood coagulation without altering the cellular morphology of red blood cells (RBCs), whereas EDTA incubation caused notable changes within 6 hours of incubation. The system allows for quantitative analysis of coagulation dynamics by assessing parameters like cell clustering and morphology over time in these prepared samples, offering insights into the comparative efficacy and effects of anticoagulants outside the body.