A recurring theme in medical imaging at the moment is an evolution towards smaller, often handheld devices that use more common technologies. Many of them share the property of being potentially cheap to produce and have specific diagnostic use rather than being a general imaging tool like MRI. An exciting development announced by UCLA uses lens free photonic based around a mobile telephone.

UCLA electrical engineering professor Aydogan Ozcan has constructed a prototype cell phone that is capable of monitoring the condition of HIV and malaria patients, as well as testing water quality in undeveloped areas or disaster sites. The imaging technology was invented by Ozcan, a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, and has been miniaturized by researchers in his lab to the point that it can fit in standard cell phones and webcams.

The imaging platform is known as LUCAS (Lensless Ultra-wide-field Cell monitoring Array platform based on Shadow imaging), acquires an image using a short wavelength blue light to illuminate a blood, saliva or other fluid sample. LUCAS captures an image of the microparticles in the solution using a sensor array. 

As red blood cells and other microparticles have a distinct diffraction pattern, or shadow image, they can be identified and counted virtually instantaneously by LUCAS using custom-developed "decision algorithm" software that compares the captured shadow images to a library of training images. Data collected by LUCAS can then be sent to a hospital for analysis and diagnosis using the cell phone, or transferred via USB to a computer for transmission to a hospital. This characteristic opens exciting opportunities for remote diagnostic for use in field situations where bulky equipment is not appropriate. Likewise if costs allows, it might allow patients to use the equipment at home or remote from clinicians where the images can then be analysed by human or computers. Since first demonstrating the technology in 2007 the UCLA researchers have now improved the LUCAS technique to the point that it can classify a significantly larger sample volume than previously shown — up to 5 milliliters, from an earlier volume of less than 0.1 ml — representing a major step toward portable medical diagnostic applications.

LUCAS is not a substitute for a microscope but rather a complement. While microscopes can produce detailed images, images produced by LUCAS are grainy and pixelated. The LUCAS platform's advantage lies in its ability to nearly instantaneously identify and count microparticles, something that is time consuming and difficult to do with a microscope in resource-limited settings. Also, because LUCAS does not use a lens, the only constraint on size is the size of the chip it is built on.

Benefits:

• Small scale implies lost cost
• Enables the hospital to come to the patient - critical in locations where access to healthcare is limited
• Enables to transmission of data wirelessly to centres for analysis
• Potential portability would enable this tecnhology to be available to patients
• Tuning the scheme enables different outcomes to be observed.

Commercialisation:

More Information:

UCLA Release

Ozcan Research Group