An Examination System to Detect Deep Vein Thrombosis of a Lower Limb Using Light Reflection Rheography

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) of lower limbs can easily arise from prolonged sitting or standing. Elders and pregnant women are most likely to have this disease. When the embolus of DVT comes to pass the lung, it will become a life-threatening disease. Thus, for DVT disease, early detection and the early treatment are needed. The goal of this study was to develop an examination system to be used at non-medical places to detect the DVT of lower limbs with light reflection rheography (LRR). Consisting of a wearable device and a mobile application (APP), the system is operated in a wireless manner to control the actions of sensors and display and store the LRR signals on the APP. Then, the recorded LRR signals are processed to find the parameters of DVT examination. Twenty subjects were recruited to perform experiments. The veins of lower limbs were occluded by pressuring the cuff up to 100 mmHg and 150 mmHg to simulate the slight and serious DVT scenarios, respectively. Six characteristic parameters were defined to classify whether there was positive or negative DVT using the receiver operating characteristic curves, including the slopes of emptying and refilling curves in the LRR signal, and the changes of venous pump volume. Under the slight DVT scenario (0 mmHg vs. 100 mmHg), the first three parameters, m₁₀, m₄₀, and m₅₀, had accuracies of 72%, 69%, and 69%, respectively. Under the serious DVT scenario (0 mmHg vs. 150 mmHg), m₁₀, m₄₀, and m₅₀ achieved accuracies of 73%, 76%, and 73%, respectively. The experimental results show that this proposed examination system may be practical as an auxiliary tool to screen DVT in homecare settings.