Design and development of an impedimetric-based system for the remote monitoring of home-based dialysis patients

A key clinical challenge is to determine the desired 'dry weight' of a patient in order to terminate the dialysis procedure at the optimal moment and thus avoid the effects of over-and under-hydration. It has been found that the effects of haemodialysis on patients can be conveniently monitored using whole-body bioimpedance measurements. The identified need of assessing the hydrational status of patients undergoing haemodialysis at home gave rise to the present Dialydom (DIALYse a DOMicile) project. The aim of the project is to develop a convenient miniaturised impedance monitoring device for localised measurements (on the calf) in order to estimate an impedimetric hydrational index of the home-based patient, and to transmit this and other parameters to a remote clinical site. Many challenges must be overcome to develop a robust and valid home-based device. Some of these are presented in the paper.