Detecting malaria with surface plasmon microscope

Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax species are associated for malarial infections primarily in south-African and south-Asian sub-continents respectively. In this work we extract the refractive index of whole blood (WB) infected with Plasmodium falciparum or Plasmodium vivax species. Surface plasmon microscopy is used for the extraction of refractive index of WB. We conclude that intrinsic physical parameters, such as refractive index, can be used as a quantitative label-free estimator for the detection of different plasmodium species with varying densities in human WB.