title: A PMMA microfluidic dielectric sensor for blood coagulation monitoring at the point-of-care.
abstract: This paper describes the design and construct of a fully biocompatible, microfluidic, dielectric sensor targeted at monitoring human whole blood coagulation at the point-of-care (POC). The sensor assembly procedure involves using sputtered electrodes in a microfluidic channel with a physiologically relevant height of 50μm to create a three-dimensional (3D), parallel-plate, capacitive sensing area. The sensor is constructed with biocompatible materials of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) for the substrate and titanium nitride (TiN) for the sensing and floating electrodes. The real part of the complex relative dielectric permittivity of human whole blood is measured from 10kHz to 100MHz using an impedance analyzer and under static conditions. The temporal variation in dielectric permittivity at 1MHz for human whole blood undergoing coagulation shows a peak in permittivity at 5 minutes, which closely matches our previously established results. This sensor can pave the way for monitoring blood coagulation under physiologically relevant shear flow rates in the future.
authors.forename: Debnath
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maji
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Suster
authors.forename: Erdem
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kucukal
authors.forename: Umut A
authors.initials: UA
authors.lastname: Gurkan
authors.forename: Evi X
authors.initials: EX
authors.lastname: Stavrou
authors.forename: Pedram
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mohseni
mesh_terms: D001777:Blood Coagulation / Q000502:physiology*; D004560:Electricity; D004566:Electrodes; D006801:Humans; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D019904:Polymethyl Methacrylate / Q000737:chemistry*; D013997:Time Factors; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: C041500:titanium nitride; D019904:Polymethyl Methacrylate; D014025:Titanium