Improvement of the accuracy of continuous hematocrit measurement under various blood flow conditions

Abstract

We propose an accurate method for continuous hematocrit (HCT) measurement of flowing blood under varying plasma conditions of electrical conductivity, osmolality, and flow rate. Two parameters, namely the hematocrit estimation parameter (HEP) and normalized difference, are proposed to reduce the HCT measurement error. HEP was demonstrated in a previous work. The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that the two parameters were strongly correlated with the reference HCT measured by microcentrifugation. The measurement error was less than 9% despite significant simultaneous variations in the plasma properties and shear rate. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.