The Development of a Blood Leakage Monitoring System for the Applications in Hemodialysis Therapy

The purpose of this paper is to design, fabricate, and characterize of a bracelet monitoring device for blood leakage detection during the hemodialysis treatment. The design includes a photointerrupter, a Bluetooth 4 wireless module, power, and alert components. The validation results show that it only needs a very small amount of blood (0.01 ml), and takes 1.6 s to detect a blood leakage. Furthermore, the lifetime of the battery on this device is longer than the currently available commercial products. It can continuously give out an alert for 18-h long and continuously monitor up to 41 h. In addition, the transmission range of Bluetooth wireless signal can be extended to 23 m. As long as the patients wear this bracelet blood leakage detector during the hemodialysis therapy and affix the absorbent material onto the junction of fistula, any blood leakage can be detected. As the absorbent material is placed at the light sensing position of the photointerrupter, which causes the received light intensity to change during blood leakage. Once a blood leakage occurs, the absorbent material absorbs the blood due to the capillary action and triggers the alarm system. A warning light will also be activated, and a leakage occurrence is transmitted to the healthcare stations alarming healthcare workers via the Bluetooth wireless. The healthcare workers can take appropriate action immediately to prevent any risks to the patients during hemodialysis therapy. The proposed blood leakage monitoring system can improve the current medical approach for the hemodialysis therapy.