Assessing the quality of stored red blood cells using handheld Spatially Offset Raman spectroscopy with multisource...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Hematology

Background:

• Red blood cell concentrate (RCC) quality monitoring is crucial for transfusion safety and effective inventory management.
• Current methods for assessing RCC quality are often invasive or time-consuming.
• Non-invasive, in-situ monitoring techniques are needed to optimize blood product utilization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To employ Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) for non-invasive, in-situ identification of storage-related changes in RCC within transfusion bags.
• To validate SORS measurements by correlating Raman spectrometry data with traditional bioanalytical data.
• To develop a data analysis framework for correlating diverse analytical data from RCC.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) for in-situ analysis of RCC.
• Conducted parallel studies comparing SORS data with bioanalytical data (blood-gas, hematology, spectrophotometry).
• Applied Multisource Correlation Analysis (MuSCA) and k-means clustering to correlate Raman and bioanalytical data.

Main Results:

• Confirmed strong correlations between Raman signals and bioassay values for glucose, methemoglobin, and oxyhemoglobin in RCC.
• Identified specific Raman wavenumber changes associated with cold storage of RCC.
• Demonstrated the ability to monitor changes in both RCC and its supernatant using Raman spectroscopy.

Conclusions:

• SORS offers a viable non-invasive method for monitoring RCC quality during storage.
• Correlating Raman data with bioassays provides valuable insights into biochemical changes within stored RCC.
• This approach can support improved inventory management and reduce blood wastage in blood banks and hospitals.