Objective: Whole blood oxygen saturation and hemoglobin concentration are key markers of health across a variety of clinical contexts. Extracorporeal systems (dialysis, cardiopulmonary bypass, ECMO, etc.) require close monitoring of these parameters for proper patient treatment and intervention. Currently, blood gas analyzers are the gold standard for such measurements, however, these devices are invasive and fail to provide real-time results. In contrast, optical sensors can non-invasively probe whole blood for real-time monitoring of oxygen saturation and hemoglobin concentration. While commercial devices that implement such sensors exist, they not only fail to reduce the overall footprint of extracorporeal systems but instead increase it.

 

Technology or Method: In this work, we develop small form factor optical sensors to be compatible with extracorporeal systems and obtain accurate real-time results using an empirical calibration method. We evaluate the performance of a pair of these optical sensors using this calibration through in-vitro experiments with whole blood.

 

Results: Results showed an average accuracy root-mean square error of 1.30 g/dL for hemoglobin concentration and 4.76 % for saturation. Conclusions: These results demonstrate the potential viability of these sensors for use in assessing extracorporeal device performance and patient health.