Measurement System for Blood Sedimentation Rate Through Impedenzimetric Sampling

Blood sedimentation rate, often referred to erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), is a measurement of the rate at which red blood cells settle in a tube over a specified period. The test is a non-specific marker of inflammation and is commonly used in clinical practice to aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of infections, autoimmune diseases, certain cancers, and in general of inflammatory conditions. During the test, anticoagulated blood is placed in a vertical tube, and the rate at which the red blood cells settle is measured in millimetres per hour (mm/hr). Elevated sedimentation rates typically indicate the presence of inflammation, as proteins released during inflammation cause red blood cells to clump together and settle more rapidly. It is important to note that this method lacks specificity and can be influenced by various factors such as age, gender, anemia, pregnancy, and certain medications. Despite its limitations, the blood sedimentation rate remains a widely used and valuable tool in clinical practice, providing important information about the presence and severity of inflammation in the body. In this paper, the authors present an alternative method, with respect to traditional instrumentation based on optical detection, which is based on impedance measurement. The proposed method shows similar accuracy with respect to traditional approaches and allows to reduce observation times, which are in the order of some hundreds of seconds. Moreover, this method allows also to estimate blood aggregation rate.