Blood Coagulation by Low Energy Plasma Jet
1
E. Janani1, M. Ghoranneviss1, M. Al-Ebrahim2, P. Mortazavi3, A .H. Sari1, Sh. Mirpour1,
M. Hadipour Jahromy4, S. M. Borghei1, and Z. Ghoannevis1
Plasma Physics Research Center, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2
Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
3
Department of Pathology, Faculty of specialized Veterinary Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad
University, Tehran, Iran
4
Tehran Medical Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract: In this paper we demonstrate blood coagulation by atmospheric plasma jet operating at room
temperature. The non-thermal characteristic of our device confirms the possibility of using this device for
biomedical applications. The results on the ability of non-thermal plasma to promote blood coagulation are
presented in this paper. Plasma treatment performed on skin and liver of living animal tissues in our experiments
and our results suggest that there is no any visible or microscopic damage on the skin and tissue using plasma
treatment at few seconds plasma irradiation.
Keywords: non-thermal argon plasma, blood coagulation, tissue processing.
1. Introduction
Recently, a new area for the application of plasma
source operating at atmospheric pressures has
emerged: biomedical applications. During the last
decade, the basics of sterilizing effects of plasmas
were well studied. Recently, therapeutic applications
are of great concern. Existing plasma surgical
technologies such as coagulation or ablation are
mainly based on lethal plasma effects on living
systems [1-5]. The effect of the Plasma on different
tissues remains relatively constant across the tissue
types tested. A total depth of necrosis of about 2.0
mm was seen in the dense and vascular tissue of the
liver, spleen and kidney. Thermal damage leads to
necrosis, or accidental cell death. Necrosis is defined
as the consequence of a catastrophic injury to the
mechanisms that maintain the integrity of the cell. A
well-established technique based on plasma heat is
argon plasma coagulation (APC) [6-8]. In this article
we demonstrate atmospheric plasma jet operating at
room temperature. The non-thermal characteristic of
our device confirms the possibility of this device for
biomedical applications. Here we describe the ability
of non-thermal plasma to promote blood
coagulation, where plasma treatment was performed
on the skin and liver of living animal tissues. The
results confirmed that there was not any visible or
microscopic damage on skin and tissue using
plasma treatment at few seconds. [1, 5, 6].
2. Experimental
Argon plasma was produced inside a glass tube with
5cm in length and diameter of 8mm, (Fig (1.a)).
Two electrodes were used. The first electrode was
placed inside the tube, which is made of Ni-Cr with
the length of 11cm and the diameter of 1mm (Fig
(1.b)) The first electrode is movable and it is
possible to adjust the length inside the tube in order
to have stable plasma, which in our setup the
optimum length was found to be 7 cm inside the
tube as it is shown in Fig. 2.c. The second electrode
was also made from aluminum, which was 2 cm in
length and was placed around the tube. The tube was
made of pyrex and surrounded by insulator of 4mm
in diameter (see Fig. 2.c and 2.d). The argon flow
rate is set at between 1.5 and 2 lit/min and the
process time is 21 min while 1.1 kv voltage and AC
power of 60 HZ was applied.
Figure 1.a. glass tube, b. first electrode, c. and d. plasma
irradiation.
3. Results and Discussion
Blood coagulation initially in vitro performed on a
certain volume of blood from cadaver organs. The
results consistently show faster coagulation when
exposed to APC: for example, blood treated for 10
seconds completely coagulates while untreated
sample
coagulates
in
14
minutes.
Figure 4.a. and b. Skin histology control, 12 seconds
plasma treatment times, coagulation completed and show
no detectable tissue damage.
The effect of the Plasma Jet on skin
Figure 2. two drops of blood at the same time were
dropping. Plasma-assisted blood coagulation with 10second treatment (left) and control drop (right). Right
drop after 10 minutes still does not coagulate.
Figure 3.a. and b. blood clot formation under APC
treatment in 10 seconds. Fig. 3.b shows control drop after
10 minutes without coagulation.
Blood coagulation on Living animal during liver
surgery was also tested in another experiment on the
12 living rat’s liver. Initially 4 rats were operated and
in each of them slices of 1 cm on rat liver were
created. Bleeding time to complete blood
coagulation in rat liver was about 4 to 5 minutes.
Then the remained eight rats Surgery was performed
immediately after cutting 1cm on liver and plasma
treatment begun and in 12 seconds that is less than a
minute Coagulation was completed. On tissues after
exposure of plasma, treated samples of liver in 1cm3
were examined with blood coagulation histology
tests on cadaver organs with subsequent gross and
microscopic evaluation of tissue to test for damage.
Our analysis demonstrates blood clotting within 12
seconds without gross or microscopic evidence of
tissue damage. A total depth of necrosis of about 12
micro meter was seen in the dense and vascular
tissue of the liver.
The purpose of the study was to determine the effect
of the PlasmaJet® when used for coagulation on a
range of different tissues and to compare this with
the control samples, about coagulation time and
necrosis. In addition to a study of the immediate
effects after surgery, the postoperative effects on
tissue after 7, 14 and 21 days were also examined.
Surgery was performed on 10 rats, comparing the
coagulation effects on skin tissue at equal
operations. The back part of the animal body (rat)
was cut for 2cm in length on the upper tail. The 3
control samples were bleeding 10 minutes to clots be
formed naturally. Coagulation was formed
completely for 4 samples during fixed periods of 10
seconds under similar APC treatment operating. In
addition to the observed surgical effect, samples of
tissue approximately 1cm³ in size were removed
immediately 7, 14 and 21 days after surgery from
both tissues that were treated and untreated with
APC for fixation in 10% formalin and preparation of
up to 30 histological sections. The post-operative
effects of each coagulation technology on each of
the tissues were observed after 7, 14 and 21 days by
repeating both visual and histological examinations.
Figure. 5. Cutting on the mouse skin, a. control:
after more than 10 minutes was not coagulated, b.
10 seconds was treated with APC and coagulation
was completed.
Histological comparison of skin
References
Figure 6.a. and b. Skin histology: control samples, 0, 21
days after surgery
Figure 7.a., b., and c. Skin histology (left to right): APC
treated samples with 10 seconds treatment times, 0, 14, 21
days after surgery show no detectable tissue damage
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Figure. 8. Skin histology: APC treated samples after 5
minutes treatment and 7days after surgery show no
detectable tissue damage
Therefore we observed that 21 days after APC
treatment wound size is decreased so dramatically
and results and images suggest that the method of
using APC designed in this stage reduced the
clotting time from 10 minutes in normal samples to
10 seconds on APC treated samples with no damage.
4. Conclusion
The scope of the presented research included only
initial studies of plasma influence on blood
coagulation. In our experiment using the APC to
blood coagulation in vitro and also was used during
surgery have less time for blood coagulation
compared with other methods as well as some other
APC and the DBD in the absence of tissue damage
and also reduce the coagulation time in 10 seconds
which has been reported for more than a minute by
other researchers at the DBD technique previously
[6-8]. The device competitive with other samples
made in the world and less than 15 seconds was
Completed blood coagulation with no damage.
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