title: An auto-perfusing umbilical cord blood collection instrument.
abstract: In this paper, the development of an automated umbilical cord blood (UCB) collection instrument, comprising of mechanical, electronics and control components, is provided in detail. UCB from the placenta provides a rich source of highly proliferative cells for many clinical uses as it contains rich Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs) which yield many benefits over traditional sources such as the bone marrow and periphery blood. Current collection of UCB uses a syringe to extract blood from placenta, which is highly limited in volume and cell numbers. This paper will present the development of an automated UCB collection instrument to yield improved performance which comprised four subsystems. First, a placenta handling system is designed to produce air pressure which can realize the emulation of the uterus compression on the placenta. Second, an auto-medium injector system is presented to enable perfusion automatically. Third, a time window widening system is developed which generates vibrations during the perfusion phase and helps the exposed end of the cord cool down to a low temperature. Finally, a control platform is used to integrate all systems working together, hosting the control algorithms which operate the instrument automatically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore. eletankk@nus.edu.sg
authors.forename: K K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: K Z
authors.initials: KZ
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Putra
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Pu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: L G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Tan
mesh_terms: D001273:Atmosphere Exposure Chambers; D001777:Blood Coagulation; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002469:Cell Separation; D004581:Electronics; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems; D020407:Internet; D008838:Microcomputers; D010477:Perfusion; D010920:Placenta / Q000166:cytology; D011247:Pregnancy; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface