The invention concerns the field of measuring the density of a sample, notably for evaluating the relative amount of the first component and the second component in the sample.
For this, optical measuring of the index is known but such kind of measurement implies drying the sample. There is therefore a need for a device that can be used in vivo and that can achieve a plurality of different measurement.
Such versatility is provided by a device comprising:
- a first detector adapted to measure the sample absorption of a first light beam comprised between 200 nanometers and 300 nanometers,
- a second detector adapted to measure the sample absorption of the second light beam comprised between 700 nanometers and 3500 nanometers, and
- a calculator adapted to obtain the relative amount by using the first and second measured absorptions.
Applications would include pathological cases of dense cells and amyloids usually due to undesired protein aggregates. In the case of sickle cell disease, dense subpopulations can lead to exaggerated effects on the cell function. A range of densities can also be expected for cancer cells. Other proteins aggregates form amyloids such as for transthyretin, or proteins in Alzheimer’s disease.