A new measurement method of separation percentage for human blood plasma based on ultrasound attenuation

Abstract

In this research, the separation accuracy of blood-plasma-based multi-decay pulse-power technique (MDPPT) was presented. The MDPPT provides adjustable-path measurements according to the amplitude of transmitted pulses and accurate attenuation measurements of propagation echoes through blood and blood plasma; thus, reduction of time and power consumption during the plasma separation process was achieved using the centrifuge technique. A mathematical model of separation accuracy and attenuation was derived and it was used for concluding the blood plasma concentration based on attenuation. Multi levels of concentration yield 20, 35, 50, 80 and 93% of blood plasma separation percentage; whereas attenuation that is more than 80% of the separation percentage may prove useful for purity inspection and contaminant detection. The platform of separation process was built with multi-level pulse power controlled by the fuzzy logic approach and broadband transducers affixed on the outside of a low-reflection coefficient thin vessel. The signal in the receive transducer permits the measurement of the attenuation and the velocity by measuring the time of flight. The fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the appropriate plasma signal for each echo was obtained and was compared with that of blood to yield the attenuation as a function of separation percentage. The data show the feasibility for measuring a plasma separation of 97%. Therefore, such measurements can be proven useful for detecting contaminants in blood plasma and blood serum. The blood plasma separation accuracy measurements prove advantageous for saving time and power consumption of the separation process required. Key words: Attenuation measurements, blood plasma percentage, centrifuge device separation accuracy, contaminant detection.