Resonating Fluidic Circuits: A Novel Technology to Create a Portable Blood Viscoelasticity Measuring Device

Abstract

The prehospital detection of coagulopathy has been identified as an important goal for the future of emergency medicine and trauma care. However, no clinically accepted devices that can diagnose coagulopathy by measuring blood clot viscoelasticity are portable, meaning that coagulopathy can only be diagnosed inside a well-resourced hospital. Resonating fluidic circuits are a promising technology to address this clinical need. In addition to being small enough to fit into a pocket, they are inexpensive to produce, and it has been suggested that they can be used to measure viscoelasticity. Previous research undertakings on fluidic circuits have not fully explored the potential of the technology to be applied to this clinical need. In this work, the scientific understanding of fluidic circuits is expanded, a fluidic circuit design is created for optimal viscoelastic measurement of blood clots, a portable, inexpensive, and efficient method of electrically instrumenting fluidic circuits is developed, and finally, the system is evaluated for its ability to specifically measure clot viscoelasticity relative to an existing device.