Sensors 2010, 10(12), 10714-10732; doi:10.3390/s101210714
Article

A Low Cost Device for Monitoring the Urine Output of Critical Care Patients

Abraham Otero 1,* email, Francisco Palacios 2 email, Teodor Akinfiev 3 email and Andrey Apalkov 3 email
1 Department of Information and Communications Systems Engineering, University San Pablo CEU, Boadilla del Monte 28668 Madrid, Spain 2 Critical Care Unit, University Hospital of Getafe, Getafe, Carretera Toledo KM 12.500, 28901Madrid, Spain 3 Center of Automation and Robotics, Technical University of Madrid, Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CAR UPM-CSIC), La Poveda, Arganda del Rey, 28500 Madrid, Spain
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 17 October 2010; in revised form: 20 November 2010 / Accepted: 23 November 2010 / Published: 2 December 2010
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors in Biomechanics and Biomedicine)
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Abstract: In critical care units most of the patients’ physiological parameters are sensed by commercial monitoring devices. These devices can also supervise whether the values of the parameters lie within a pre-established range set by the clinician. The automation of the sensing and supervision tasks has discharged the healthcare staff of a considerable workload and avoids human errors, which are common in repetitive and monotonous tasks. Urine output is very likely the most relevant physiological parameter that has yet to be sensed or supervised automatically. This paper presents a low cost patent-pending device capable of sensing and supervising urine output. The device uses reed switches activated by a magnetic float in order to measure the amount of urine collected in two containers which are arranged in cascade. When either of the containers fills, it is emptied automatically using a siphon mechanism and urine begins to collect again. An electronic unit sends the state of the reed switches via Bluetooth to a PC that calculates the urine output from this information and supervises the achievement of therapeutic goals.
Keywords: biosensors; urine output; critical care; intelligent alarms; patient monitoring

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Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Otero, A.; Palacios, F.; Akinfiev, T.; Apalkov, A. A Low Cost Device for Monitoring the Urine Output of Critical Care Patients. Sensors 2010, 10, 10714-10732.

AMA Style

Otero A, Palacios F, Akinfiev T, Apalkov A. A Low Cost Device for Monitoring the Urine Output of Critical Care Patients. Sensors. 2010; 10(12):10714-10732.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Otero, Abraham; Palacios, Francisco; Akinfiev, Teodor; Apalkov, Andrey. 2010. "A Low Cost Device for Monitoring the Urine Output of Critical Care Patients." Sensors 10, no. 12: 10714-10732.

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