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Q: Quantenoptik
Q 38: Laser in Medicine
Q 38.2: Talk
Friday, April 6, 2001, 17:45–18:00, H 2013
Malaria Detection by Observation of Depolarized Light Scatter in a Laser Flow Cytometer — •Benedikt Krämer1, Jörg Neukammer1, and Martin P. Grobusch2 — 1Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Abbestr. 2-12, D-10587 Berlin — 2Charité, Augustenburger Platz 1, D-13353 Berlin
Malaria parasites infiltrate red blood cells and decompose their red respiratory protein, hemoglobin. The degradation product is a small (1 µm) birefringent crystal, the malaria pigment or hemozoin, which is finally cleared from the blood by white blood cells.
In this contribution, it is shown, that flow cytometric detection of hemozoin carrying monocytes can be exploited to detect a malaria infection with high sensitivity and specificity. In a laser flow cytometer, hemozoin containing white blood cells have been distinguished from normal white blood cells analyzing depolarization of scattered light. Employing cell sorting and subsequent microscopic analysis monocytes with pigment inclusions were identified as a subgroup of white blood cells most suitable for flow cytometric detection. The relative frequency of these cells with respect to the total white blood cell count was determined for the first time and varies from 1:100 to 1:100000.