LECTURE NOTE 4

BLOOD FLOW METERS

BLOOD FLOW
METER
 INTRODUCTION
• Blood flow is the one of the important physiological
parameter and the most difficult to measure accurately.

• The average velocities of blood flow vary over a wide

range depending on diameter of blood vessel.

• There are many techniques for measuring the blood

flow and velocity.
• They are categorized into
1.invasive(surgical).
2.non invasive(through the skin).
 Need for blood
flowmeter
• Inspection for block in blood flow.
• Testing artificial blood vessels during organ
transplantation.
• During Fistula creation in dialysis.
 Typical values of blood
flow
Type of blood Total cross- Blood velocity in
vessels section area cm/s

Aorta 3–5 cm2 40 cm/s

Capillaries 4500–6000 cm2 0.03 cm/s

Vena cava inferior 14 cm2 15 cm/s

and superior
 Introduction
• Most widely used blood flow meters
are:

 Electromagnetic blood flow meter

 Ultrasonic blood flow meters
 NMR blood flow meter
 Laser Doppler blood flow meter
1.Electromagnetic Blood Flow Meters
• Measures instantaneous pulsatile flow of blood

• Works based on the principle of electromagnetic induction

• The voltage induced in a conductor moving in a

magnetic field is proportional to the velocity of the
conductor

• The conductive blood is the moving conductor

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015

Principle of Electromagnetic Blood Flow Meters

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015

Principle of Electromagnetic Blood flow Measurement

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 Principle of Electromagnetic Blood Flow Meters
• A permanent magnet or electromagnet
positioned around the blood vessel generates
a magnetic field perpendicular to the
direction of the flow of the blood.

• Voltage induced in the moving blood column

is measured with stationary electrodes
located on opposite sides of the blood vessel
and perpendicular to the direction of the
magnetic field.
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 Principle of Electromagnetic Blood Flow Meters

• The Induced emf

• Where
• B = magnetic flux density, T
• L = length between electrodes, m
• u = instantaneous velocity of blood, m/s

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015

 Principle of Electromagnetic Blood Flow Meters

• This method requires that the blood vessel be

exposed so that the flow head or the
measuring probe can be put across it.

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015

 Design of Flow Transducers
• The electromagnetic flow-transducer is a tube of non-
magnetic material to ensure that the magnetic flux does
not bypass the flowing liquid and go into the walls of the
tube.

• The tube is made of a conducting material and generally

has an insulating lining to prevent short circuiting of
induced emf.

• The induced emf is picked up by point electrodes made

from stainless steel or platinum.
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 Fig: Typical flow transducer

•The electromagnetic flow-transducer is a tube of non-

magnetic material to ensure that the magnetic flux does not
bypass the flowing liquid and go into the walls of the tube.
 Design of Flow Transducers
• The flow head contains a slot through which the
intact blood vessel can be inserted to make a snug
fit.

• Several probes of different sizes must therefore

accompany the flowmeter to match the full range
of sizes of the blood vessels which have various
diameters.

• Flow heads having as small as 1mm are available.

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 Types of Electromagnetic Blood Flow Meters
• DC Flow meters

• Use DC Magnetic field.

• Cause electrode polarization and amplifier drift.

• AC Flow meters
• Electromagnets are driven by alternating
currents.
• The transducer acts like a Transformer and
induces error voltages that often exceed the
signal levels by several orders of magnitude.
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 Electromagnetic AC flow meters
• Error recovery is achieved by using several different
waveforms for magnet current

• Sine, Square, Trapezoidal.

• Suitable balancing circuits are used to balance out

the error voltage. BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 Sine wave Flowmeters
• The transformer induced voltage is 90˚ out of
phase and is eliminated by

• Injecting a voltage of equal strength and

opposite phase into the signal.

• Using a gated amplifier.

• Permit the amplification of the signal
only during the flow induced voltages
are maximum and the transformer
induced voltages are minimum.
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 Square wave Flowmeters
• The transformer induced voltage is only a
spike.

• Separation is easier as the amplifier can be

gated only for a very short period.

• Blanking is required only when the current in

the magnet is reversing its direction and the
amplifier works during the flat portion of the
square wave.
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
Magnetic Flowmeter Block Diagram

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015

 Magnetic Flowmeter Block Diagram
• The oscillator, which drives the magnet
provides a control signal for the gate,
operates at a frequency of between 60 and
400 Hz.

• The frequency response is high enough to

allow the recording of the flow pulses.

• The mean or average flow can be derived by

use of a low-pass filter.
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 2. Ultrasonic Blood Flow Meters
• A beam of ultrasonic energy is used to
measure the velocity of flowing blood.

• Two types:

• Transit time flow meters

• Doppler type.

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015

Transit-Time Ultrasonic Flow Meters
Ultrasonic
Transducer

Ultrasonic
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
Transducer
 Transit-Time Ultrasonic Flow Meters

• Where
• t - transit time
• D - Distance between the transducers
• c - Sound velocity
• u - blood flow velocity
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 Transit-Time Ultrasonic Flow Meters
• The pulsed beam is directed through a blood
vessel at a shallow angle and its transit time is
measured.

• The transit time is shortened when the blood

flows in the same direction as the transmitted
energy

• The transit time is lengthened otherwise.

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
Doppler Type Ultrasonic Flow Meters

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015

 Doppler type Ultrasonic Flow Meters
• Based on the Doppler principle

• A transducer sends an ultrasonic beam with a

frequency F into the flowing blood.

• A small part of the transmitted energy is

scattered back and is received by a second
transducer arranged opposite the first one.

• The reflected signal has a different frequency

F + FD or F – FD due to Doppler effect.
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 Doppler Frequency equation

• Where
• fd = Doppler frequency shift
• f0 = source frequency
• u = target velocity
• c = velocity of sound
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 Doppler type Ultrasonic Flow Meters…

• The Doppler component FD is directly

proportional to the velocity of the flowing
blood.

• A fraction of the transmitted ultrasonic

energy reaches the second transducer directly
with the frequency being unchanged.

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015

Doppler Type Ultrasonic Flow Meters

BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015

 Doppler type Ultrasonic Flow Meters…

• After amplification of the composite signal,

the Doppler frequency can be obtained at the
output of the detector as the difference
between the direct and the scattered signal
components.

• For normal blood velocities, the Doppler

signal is typically in the low audio frequency
range.
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
Fig : ultra sonic flow
meter
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 (a)Doppler-shift flow-velocity
meters
• It is an non invasive method.
• It is based on the analysis of echo signals from
erythrocytes(RBCs) in blood.
• The incident ultrasound is scattered by the blood cells
and scattered wave is received by the second receiver.
• The frequency shift of the scattered wave gives idea
about velocity of scatterers.(RBC)
• The Doppler frequency shift is a measure of size and
direction
of the flow velocity.
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
BME 312-BMI II-L3-ALİ IŞIN 2015
 (b)Range gated pulsed Doppler flow
meter
• Baker(1970) stated that recording blood flow using
Doppler
shift are sometimes misleading and inaccurate.
• These difficulties can be overcome , if the ultrasonic
source is pulsed.
• If the returning signal is range gated ,then the diameter
and
velocity of blood stream can measure together.
 (c) Flow measurement by Doppler
Imaging
• Doppler ultrasound is not only used for measurement of
the absolute value of blood velocity and volume, but it
also helps to visualize blood flow.
• The probe this imaging equipment is mechanically
coupled to position resolver, which gives electrical
output.
• Imaging is done by moving the probe through the skin,
and developing a 3D image using a computer.
• Thus, it is possible to construct anterior-posterior ,
lateral and cross-sectional scans of blood vessel.
Flow measurement by Doppler
Imaging

Figs : Flow measurement by Doppler

 Flow measurement by Doppler
Imaging
• Using this recording of mean blood flow, peak flow,
reverse
peak flow etc. of cardiac cycle are possible.
• This method is also helpful for taking measurements
from brain , which is difficult to access.
 NMR Blood Flowmeter
• Non invasive method by Nuclear magnetic resonance
principle.
• For flow measurement , behaviour of the 2 Hydrogen
atoms of water is studied.(Since blood is approximately
83% water).
• Due to magnetic moment of the H atom , the nucleus
behaves as a micro miniature magnet which can
affected by externally applied magnetic field.
• the hydrogen nuclei orient themselves to produce a
net parallel alignment to a steady magnetic field.
 NMR Blood Flowmeter
• Orientation of H atoms will be change according to the
status
of blood flow.
• This orientation will results in the magnetization of H
atoms.
• Therefore, magnitude of magnetization can be related
to either velocity of blood or flow rate.
• A crossed coil configuration is used to detect the
level of magnetization in body.
• The voltage induced in coil(NMR signal) is proportional
to
velocity and area of vessel carrying blood.
• NMR flow meters are limited in their application to the
Laser Doppler blood flow meter

Fig : schematic diagram of laser doppler blood

flow meter