Red blood cells aggregability measurement of coagulating blood in extracorporeal circulation system with multiple-frequency electrical impedance spectroscopy

Red blood cells (RBCs) aggregability AG of coagulating blood in extracorporeal circulation system has been investigated under the condition of pulsatile flow. Relaxation frequency fc from the multiple-frequency electrical impedance spectroscopy is utilized to obtain RBCs aggregability AG. Compared with other methods, the proposed multiple-frequency electrical impedance method is much easier to obtain non-invasive measurement with high speed and good penetrability performance in biology tissues. Experimental results show that, RBCs aggregability AG in coagulating blood falls down with the thrombus formation while that in non-coagulation blood almost keeps the same value, which has a great agreement with the activated clotting time (ACT) fibrinogen concertation (Fbg) tests. Modified Hanai formula is proposed to quantitatively analyze the influence of RBCs aggregation on multiple-frequency electrical impedance measurement. The reduction of RBCs aggregability AG is associated with blood coagulation reaction, which indicates the feasibility of the high speed, compact and cheap on-line thrombus measurement biosensors in extracorporeal circulation systems.