From: Toward characterizing extracellular vesicles at a single-particle level
Technique | Detection principle | Size range | Concentration range (particle/mL) | Throughput (particle /min) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Optical methods | ||||
 Nanoparticle tracking analysis | Brownian motion, scattered and fluorescent lights | 50 nm − 1 μm | 107–109 | 6000 |
 Dark-field microscopy | Scattered light | >  50 nm | relative | – |
 Flow cytometry | Scattered and fluorescent lights | 20 nm −40 μm | 107–1010 | 10,000 |
 Laser tweezers Raman spectroscopy | Inelastically scattered light | 20 nm −100 μm | relative | 0.2 |
Non-optical methods | ||||
 Electron microscopy | Scattered electrons | 1 nm −10 μm | 1010–1012 | – |
 Atomic force microscopy | Interaction forces between the probing tip and the sample | 1 nm | relative | – |
 Impedance-based flow cytometry | Coulter principle | 50 nm −10 μm | 105–1012 | 3000 |
Digital methods | ||||
 Digital PCR | PCR in partitions | – | <  200 | 200 |
 Digital ELISA | ELISA in partitions | – | <  104 | 1500 |