Patent ID: 8423104

Claim:
A method comprising: illuminating a predetermined portion of a biological sample with coherent radiation within a first predetermined wavelength range by at least of; illuminating a predetermined portion of a patient's body having blood vessels close to a surface of the patient's body, wherein the the predetermined portion is at least one of the pinna of an ear and the sclera of an eye; extracting a biological specimen from a patient and scanning the extracted biological specimen; extracting a fluid sample from a patient and processing the fluid sample with at least one of a capillary tube and a flow cytometer such that the processed sample flows through the coherent radiation with less than a predetermined number of cells within the region of illumination at any point in time; and extracting a biological specimen and illuminating sequentially predetermined portions of the extracted biological specimen, wherein the sequential illumination exploits an optical coherence tomography imaging system; detecting the emission of optical radiation within a second predetermined wavelength range, the second predetermined wavelength range being that associated with third harmonic generated signals from the coherent radiation in the first predetermined wavelength range; determining in dependence upon the detected emission of optical radiation within the second predetermined wavelength range whether the biological sample contains haemozoin.