Development of a remote system for real-time control of intravenous drip infusions

This article explores the use of a microwave reflectometry-based system for the automatic control and real-time monitoring of the flow and of the liquid level in intravenous medical infusions. In medical and hospital contexts other kind of devices, mainly based on the optical detection and counting of the infusion drops, are used. Nevertheless, the proposed system is aimed at circumventing some typical drawbacks deriving from the optical sensing, thus allowing an efficient alternative solution for automatically monitoring the instantaneous flow of intravenous medical solutions. To this purpose, the proposed system combines microwave time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements with a non-invasive sensing element (i.e.: strip electrodes directly attached to the external surface of the infusion bottle). Experimental results confirm that, by using low-cost portable TDR devices, the solution flow process can be accurately controlled. Therefore the proposed method can be successfully adopted as a promising control tool for in-hospital patient management as well as for telemedicine programs.