The Application of Biomedical Engineering Techniques to the Diagnosis and Management of Tropical Diseases: A Review <s> Bioelectrical Properties <s> Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases and an enormous public health problem and claims an estimated 1–3 million lives every year and the majority of whom are young children. No vaccine is currently available for the treatment of malaria. This letter proposes a new method of detecting malaria based on the measurement of the dielectric properties of blood at the microwave frequencies. The measurements were made at the S-band of microwave frequency using rectangular cavity perturbation technique with the samples of blood from healthy donors as well as from malaria patients. It is found that an appreciably change in the dielectric properties of patient samples with the normal healthy samples and this measurements were in good agreement with clinical results. This measurement is a new novel in vitro method of diagnosing malaria at its onset using microwaves, so that necessary precautions can be taken such as proper preventative drugs, which will continuously reduce the risk of infection. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 915–918, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24202 <s> BIB001 </s> The Application of Biomedical Engineering Techniques to the Diagnosis and Management of Tropical Diseases: A Review <s> Bioelectrical Properties <s> The scattering characteristics of the malaria byproduct hemozoin, including its scattering distribution and depolarization, are modeled using Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) and compared to those of healthy red blood cells. Scattering (or dark-field) spectroscopy and imaging are used to identify hemozoin in fresh rodent blood samples. A new detection method is proposed and demonstrated using dark-field in conjunction with cross-polarization imaging and spectroscopy. SNRs greater than 50:1 are achieved for hemozoin in fresh blood without the addition of stains or reagents. The potential of such a detection system is discussed. <s> BIB002
Lonappan et al. BIB001 studied the microwave characteristics of malaria and normal blood samples using a cavity perturbation technique. This method has many advantages such as its simplicity, rapid performance, reliable results and the small sample volume required to run the test. A significant difference of the conductivity of malaria blood samples when compared with the normal healthy samples was seen at frequencies of 2 to 3 GHz. This measurement is a new novel in vitro method of diagnosing malaria at its onset using microwaves, and it will allow precautions to be taken early in the disease course such as proper preventative drugs, which will improve disease prognosis BIB001 . Wilson et al. BIB002 developed an integrated system with dark-field reflection-mode and cross polarization microscopy for the detection of hemozoin in fresh blood samples. Hemozoin is an iron-containing pigment resulting from the breakdown of haemoglobin, found in the malaria parasite. The presence of hemozoin results in a different light scattering effect when compared to healthy RBCs. The result shows that incorporating both methods doubles the contrast when compared to the individual techniques BIB002 .