Dielectric Coagulometry: A New Approach To Estimate Venous Thrombosis Risk

We present dielectric coagulometry as a new technique to estimate the risk of venous thrombosis by measuring the permittivity change associated with the blood coagulation process The method was first tested for a simple system of animal erythrocytes suspended in fibrinogen, solution, where the coagulation rate was controlled by changing the amount of thrombin added to the suspension Second, the method was applied to a more realistic system of human whole blood, and the inherent coagulation process was monitored without artificial acceleration by a coagulation initiator The time dependence of the permittivity at a frequency around 1 M Hz showed a distinct peak at a time that corresponds to the clotting time Our theoretical modeling revealed that the evolution of heterogeneity and the sedimentation in the system cause the peak of the permittivity