Characterization of blood using terahertz waves
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Updated: May 6, 2026

Terahertz Imaging and Characterization Protocol for Freshly Excised Breast Cancer Tumors
Published on: April 5, 2020
Kiyoung Jeong1, Yong-Min Huh, Sang-Hoon Kim
1Yonsei University, Graduate Program for Nanomedical Science, Seoul 120-749, Republic of KoreabYonsei University, YUHS-KRIBB Medical Convergence Research Institute, and Severance Biomedical Science Institute, College of Medicine, Department of Radiology, 250 Seongsanno, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
We show that terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) can be used to characterize the blood. The complex optical constants of blood and its constituents, such as water, plasma, and red blood cells (RBCs), were obtained in the THz frequency region. The volume percentage of RBCs in blood was extracted and compared with the conventional RBC counter results. The THz absorption constants are shown to vary linearly with the RBC concentration in both normal saline and whole blood. The excellent linearity between the THz signal and the RBC concentration was also confirmed in a polyurethane resin tube using a THz imaging method. These results demonstrate that THz-TDS imaging can facilitate the quantitative analysis of blood.
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