Implications of the dielectrical behaviour of human blood for continuous online measurement of haematocrit

Real-time electrical impedimetric monitoring of blood coagulation process under temperature and hematocrit variations conducted in a microfluidic chip

Blood coagulation is an extremely complicated and dynamic physiological process. Monitoring of blood coagulation is essential to predict the risk of hemorrhage and thrombosis during cardiac surgical procedures. In this study, a high throughput microfluidic chip has been developed for the investigation of the blood coagulation process under temperature and hematocrit variations. Electrical impedance of the whole blood was continuously recorded by on-chip electrodes in contact with the blood sample during coagulation. Analysis of the impedance change of the blood was conducted to investigate the characteristics of blood coagulation process and the starting time of blood coagulation was defined. The study of blood coagulation time under temperature and hematocrit variations was shown a good agreement with results in the previous clinical reports. The electrical impedance measurement for the definition of blood coagulation process provides a fast and easy measurement technique. The microfluidic chip was shown to be a sensitive and promising device for monitoring blood coagulation process even in a variety of conditions. It is found valuable for the development of point-of-care coagulation testing devices that utilizes whole blood sample in microliter quantity.

Comparative Analysis of Hematocrit Measurements by Dielectric and Impedance Techniques

In a previous paper, a new dielectric technique was used to estimate hematocrit (HTC) in extracorporeal blood circulation systems, independently of plasma conductivity or osmolarity. Although many impedance techniques have been formerly proposed in the literature, none has been evaluated against plasma conductivity and osmolarity. Herein, we estimate HTC based on permittivity changes and also with other four techniques found in the literature. Besides, the error incurred in each is also studied when plasma conductivity and osmolarity changed as much as 1 mS/cm and 50 mOsm/kg, respectively. The dielectric (permittivity) technique has an error close to 5.4%, while the others showed both tendencies, i.e., lower error (2.5%, two of them) and higher error (8.6% and 16.3%, the other two). The dielectric technique, even though did not produce the lowest error, provides a well-described physical model along with simple instrumentation.

Hematocrit Measurement by Dielectric Spectroscopy

Based on permittivity changes, a new method to measure hematocrit (HCT) in extracorporeal blood systems is presented. Human blood samples were tested at different HCT levels pairing the values of permittivity change, obtained by means of a commercial impedance analyzer, with traditional centrifugation measurements. Data were correlated using both linear and nonlinear regression. When using the lineal model, the comparison yielded a high correlation coefficient (r = 0.99). Theoretical simplifications suggest that the method is independent of changes in the conductivities of the intracellular and extracellular compartments. The influence of osmolarity and conductivity of the extracellular compartment was analyzed. It is shown that HCT can be predicted within an error lower than 5% when those parameters changed as much as 1 mS/cm and 50 mOsm/kg, respectively. Thus, the method appears as valid and viable showing good possibilities in applications such as renal dialysis.

Investigation into the effects of haematocrit and temperature on the resistivity of mammalian blood using a four-electrode probe

Haematocrit and temperature effects on resistivity are investigated using the electrical impedance method. Measurements are made extensively for pig's blood. The experimental set-up basically involves four ring electrodes being placed around a wooden probe that is subsequently immersed into a syringe containing pig's blood. The syringe is then submerged in water maintained at a constant temperature while measurements are taken. The resistivity of blood is found to increase linearly by approximately 2.9% as the haematocrit level increases from 18% to 49% at a fixed temperature of 37 degrees C. Furthermore, the resistivity is found to decrease linearly by approximately 22% with temperature increasing from 33 degrees C to 42 degrees C for all practical levels of haematocrit.

Continuous measurements by impedance of haematocrit and plasma volume variations during dialysis

A technique for continuous measurements of haematocrit and plasma volume in the arterial line of dialysed patients has been tested in vitro and in vivo. This method uses impedance measurements at 5 kHz and requires a single haematocrit measurement. It relies on two assumptions: that plasma resistivity does not change during dialysis and that blood resistivity obeys Hanai's model. Both assumptions are verified during in vitro tests. Haematocrits measured in vivo by this method are found to be in good agreement with direct measurements from blood samples. The haematocrit variation is then used to monitor changes in plasma volume, assuming conservation of erythrocyte volume. In addition, it is possible to obtain the variation in interstitial volume by combining these data with body impedance measurements.

Dependence of anisotropic myocardial electrical resistivity on cardiac phase and excitation frequency

Knowledge of myocardial electrical resistivity is of interest because passive electrical properties govern the electrotonic spread of current through the myocardium and influence the shape and velocity of the excitation wave. In addition, measurements of myocardial resistivity may provide information about tissue structure and components. The aim of the present study was to determine the excitation frequency dependence and the changes during the cardiac cycle of anisotropic myocardial electrical resistivity. Longitudinal and transverse myocardial resistivity were measured using an epicardial sensor in four open-chest dogs with excitation frequencies in the range of 5-60 kHz. Mean longitudinal resistivity gradually decreased from 313 +/- 49 omega.cm at 5 kHz to 212 +/- 32 omega.cm at 60 kHz, transverse resistivity decreased from 487 +/- 49 to 378 +/- 53 omega.cm. To analyze the phasic changes, we compared mean resistivity (averaged over the full cardiac cycle) with resistivity during four cardiac phases: pre-ejection, ejection, early diastole and late diastole. Longitudinal resistivity was significantly higher during the ejection phase (+9.6 +/- 4.1 omega.cm) and lower during late diastole (-6.9 +/- 2.9 omega.cm). Transverse resistivity was significantly higher during late diastole (+4.0 +/- 2.3 omega.m). The values during the other cardiac phases were not significantly different from mean resistivity. The phasic changes in longitudinal and transverse resistivity during the cardiac cycle were independent of the excitation frequency. We speculate that these changes are related to geometrical changes, especially to changes in myocardial blood volume.