Relative permittivity measurement during the thrombus formation process using the dielectric relaxation method for various hematocrit values.

The relative permittivity ε' and the dielectric loss ε″ for various hematocrit values H for static bovine blood condition have been measured using the dielectric relaxation method to detect thrombosis in real time. The suitable measurement frequency f m ranged within 60 kHz to 1 MHz, and the relaxation frequency of red blood cells (RBCs) f rc was observed to be 2 MHz. In the f m, the temporal change of normalized ε' exhibited a minimum (called as bottom point). The bottom point was observed to be exponentially shortened as H increased. This characteristic of the ε'* minimum is discussed from three viewpoints: during fibrin formation, direct thrombus formation, and rouleaux formation processes. ε'* during the fibrin formation process decreased over time, irrespective of f. However, ε'* in f m during the direct thrombus formation process and during the aggregation formation process increased immediately and rapidly over time. Therefore, the ε'* bottom point in f m might be the indication of micrometer-scale thrombus formation by RBC aggregation due to fibrin formation.