Real-time blood cross-matching sensor for intelligent management of transfusion safety

Blood transfusion errors are not uncommon. In some cases the error is fatal. This is primarily due to lack of an automated system at the point of application and over-reliance on bar-coding and paperwork to catch these critical errors. In emergency situations, human errors contribute to transfusion and transplantation of incompatible blood types and organs resulting in rejection and possible fatality. We present a sensing concept that will monitor blood compatibility between the patient and the transfusion bag before allowing the valve to open for transfusion to take place. This will eliminate all transfusion errors and provide 100% safe transfusions automatically. The operating principle of the sensor is based on the light scattering characteristics of dilute blood and the effect of agglutination on scattering. The device proposed is an optical system based on spectrophotometric methods. The device configuration, and results from several tests with combinations of known blood samples will be presented.