A Measurement System for the Dynamic Assessment of Blood Clot Permeability

Thromboembolism, one of the leading global causes of death, requires precise risk assessment for effective prevention and treatment. To identify whether a patient is at high, moderate or low risk, healthcare professionals usually conduct a risk assessment, based on questionnaires that gather information about a patient's age, medical history, medications and specific lifestyle factors. However, this approach appears inadequate. Here, we suggest a new device useful for the identification of the patient's thrombotic risk. The proposed device is able to give information about the permeability of a fibrin clot generated 'in vitro'. The precise measure of clot permeability represents an excellent indicator of the propensity to thrombosis thus allowing the clinician, also on the bases of other anamnestic and laboratory data, to attribute a risk score to the subject. In this work, we propose a measurement system capable of determining the permeability of clots deposited on low-cost supports. A methodology for generation of plasma clots and blood clots from the same human blood sample is also described. A comparison between the permeability of clots prepared using the two different techniques is conducted to assess how different blood components may affect clot structure. The proposed measurement system was initially tested and characterized first with identical filter elements and subsequently has been used to measure the permeability of the plasma/blood clots. The comparison between the results obtained using the two different techniques is consistent and further validation will help to understand if the use of blood clots can be useful for thrombotic risk stratification and cardiovascular risk assessment.