Characterization of Sickle Cell Morphology Using Spectrally Encoded Flow Cytometry

During a sickle cell crisis in sickle cell anemia patients, deoxygenated red blood cells change their mechanical properties and block small blood vessels, causing pain, local tissue damage and even an organ failure. Understanding the wide variety of sickle cell morphologies in three dimensions is important for developing early diagnosis technologies for prevention of acute sickle cell crises. In this work, we utilize a high-resolution imaging technique termed spectrally encoded flow cytometry for imaging blood cells from a sickle cell anemia patient. Confocal images of various cell morphologies were acquired during cell flow without fluorescence labeling or staining, revealing a wide range of interference patterns between reflections from the cells’ membrane. A numerical model for the light-cell interaction was developed and the results are compared to the experimental images, offering new insights on the sickle cells shape and physiology.