Diagnostic for Thrombosis

About

Our technology monitors the viscoelastic contributions of blood and its various components which allows us to, among other things, establish a global index of thrombotic risk, and allows the source of this risk to be determined. The technology provides information on the mechanical characteristics of viscoelastic particles adhered from a fluid to an oscillating resonator, and creates a diagnostic result which can be related back to the behaviour of the whole blood and its individual constituents. Thus, it links both the cause and effect of, for example, venous thromboembolic risk. The technology works by deriving representative parameters for the mass and elasticity of a fluid. These representative parameters can be used to classify the fluid, and in the case of blood or other bodily fluids, can be used to identify pathological conditions. The invention is applicable to all types of liquids that physically interact with a surface by exhibiting a coupling effect, adhesion or the like. Background Blood coagulation is a complex process involving several biochemical reactions, the end-point of which is the formation of a clot. A clot is a gel-like network formed at a site of injury and functions as a plug to prevent loss of blood. A global coagulation test looks at the entire cascade of reactions leading to a clot. Every clot that forms, results in a unique set of viscoelastic property changes depending on several factors that contribute to the coagulation cascade. A resonator's vibration characteristics are known to be dependent on viscoelastic properties of material it meets. A mechanical resonator is device that naturally oscillates at a certain frequency, with significantly larger amplitudes, known as the resonant frequency. The resonant frequency changes depending on the physical properties of the medium surrounding the resonator, i.e.  in physical contact or close to it. For example, a small amount of mass attaching to the resonator results in a mass-dependent decrease in the resonant frequency. In contact with a liquid, the resonant characteristics are affected in two ways: a change in frequency and a significant reduction in oscillation amplitudes due to energy lost in maintaining the oscillations in a viscous medium. Technology Description This technology allows one to evaluate qualitative and semi-quantitative changes in blood viscoelasticity by means of an oscillating resonator using a novel mathematical model that provides a multi-parameter analysis of 1) whole blood, immediately prior to, and during the coagulation cascade or 2) of the individual components (RBC deformability, Platelet aggregability etc) in absence of coagulation. The mathematical model uses the resonator’s vibration characteristics and analyses blood/components in the form of a lossless component (rigidly coupled resulting in no energy dissipation) and a lossy component (viscoelastic property causing energy dissipation) and also includes a third parameter called the rigidity factor that characterizes the quality of the formed clot, through a comparison of relative changes in the two components. The invention relies on the interaction of piezoelectric resonator with viscoelastic material. Desired characteristics are derived from piezoelectric resonator frequency shift and a shift of half-bandwidth of resonance peak measured with impedance analyser after the sensor comes into contact with the studied fluid. In addition to evaluating the clotting time, the model allows for determining the qualitative properties of a forming clot and hence can distinguish various pathological conditions in terms of distinct viscoelastic change patterns in blood coagulation or mechanical properties of blood components. The model also applies to the characterization of the mechanical properties of blood constituents, such as red blood cells, platelets and fibrinogen. Key Differentiators The present invention is based around a manipulation of equations which allow a unique patented modelling approach.