A novel approach to transcutaneous localization of blood vessels using a dynamically reconfigurable electrode (DRE) array

摘要

Non-invasive transcutaneous analysis is very desirable in medical applications that require blood analysis. Electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is one of the many methods that has been extensively researched and is often used for such applications, with its advantages including very high sensitivity and rapid response. EIS utilizes electrodes to monitor conductivity variations in blood. However in order to minimize the effect of high impedance tissue and skin surrounding a low impedance, localized subcutaneous vascular structure of interest, one has to locate the structure of interest and then adjust the placement and size of the electrodes to make the measurement as targeted as possible. It is thus essential to achieve an appropriate method for a) detecting the vascular structure of interest and b) localizing the transcutaneous measurement so that sensitivity can be improved and greatly interfering measurements from surrounding tissue can be disregarded. This study proposes and assesses the potential use of a multi-electrode array for making dynamically reconfigurable electrodes (DRE), by treating electrode segments as pixels that can form re-locating and re-shaping electrodes. Simulations preformed in COMSOL indicated that the technique can successfully locate a transcutaneous structure and achieve double the sensitivity relative to conventional electrode topologies.