The cavity perturbation method for evaluating hematocrit via dielectric properties

Abstract

The physical parameters of human blood (complex permittivity and conductivity) at microwave frequencies have been investigated to assess the hematocrit (HCT). The cavity perturbation method based on a rectangular cavity operated in TE101 mode at frequency 4.212GHz has been utilized to measure the permittivity of blood with different hematocrit % at a range of temperatures. According to the results, the dielectric constant, loss factor, and conductivity appeared to be influenced by HCT level. Though the dielectric constant is the only parameter that shows clear linear regression decreasing behavior with a correlation value around (R2=0.93). For thirty healthy donors the dielectric constant decreases from (65.61±1.4 to 44.64±4.0) and from (65.3±1.2 to 48.3±1.88) for men and women, respectively, with increasing hematocrit percentage from 20% HCT up to 95% HCT. The temperature dependence of the dielectric constant is also examined in the temperature range 27-50oC and the results display a slight decrease in dielectric constant with elevation temperature. The temperature-dependence dielectric constant of water and blood samples were fitted to an empirical polynomial with temperature. A comparison of estimated HCT using the cavity technique based on dielectric properties shows a very good agreement with commercially standard HCT measurement methods. Finally, the cavity technique can be applied to measure the hematocrit up to high values based on the dielectric constant with high precision, simplicity, and low cost compared with traditional techniques.