An Automatic Intravenous Drug Injection System

Inna P. Korneeva

, Kristina A. Kramar

, Matvey I. Zabudko

and Elena N. Shalobyta

Department of Biotechnical Systems, Saint-Petersburg State Electrotechnical University,

Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation

Keywords: Intravenous Injection, Ultrasound Scans, IR-thermography, Portable Devices, Blood Vessels Localization,

Drug Delivery System.

Abstract: The report describes the development of an automatic intravenous drug injection system to a patient in the

absence of medical personnel near him. A list of pathological conditions has been determined, upon the

occurrence of which the immediate administration of drugs is required. Instrumental research methods are

proposed, the use of which makes it possible to carry out intravenous injection in an automatic mode. The

results of the implementation of modules of the injection system using the component base of mechatronics

and electronics are discussed. A generalized block diagram of the developed system is presented.

1 INTRODUCTION

There are several diseases in which, at critical

moments, there is an urgent need to promptly obtain

a therapeutic effect in the shortest possible period of

time. Such diseases include, for example,

hypertensive crisis, hypoglycemic coma, life-

threatening cardiac arrhythmias, acute allergic

conditions and pain syndromes. In such situations, it

is important to immediately provide a person with

first aid and with the necessary medicines. As a rule,

intravenous injection is the most effective and

efficient method of drug delivery (Wheeler et al,

2020; Mohapatra et al, 2018).

Angioedema (or Quincke’s edema) is one of the

most common complications in various forms of

allergic reactions, including those caused by food

allergens, plant pollen, animal hair, or even such

ordinary physical factors as cold and bright sunlight

(Ilkova et al, 2021; Plavunov et al, 2020) Due to the

fact that with Quincke's edema, the situation can

change within seconds and the slightest delay is life-

threatening, there is a need for a quick response. This

can be especially important during a flight or when

providing first aid in kindergartens and schools

(Zudaire et al, 2021; Sanchez-Borges et al, 2017).

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Allergic attacks are easily stopped with proper

treatment and prevention, but there are cases,

especially if the appropriate drug is not administered in

a timely manner, in which the outcome can be fatal.

Recently, more and more often there are patients with

the so-called polyvalent allergy, that is, those in whom

acute reactions are caused by several allergens at once.

The danger of this form of the disease is that such

reactions are unpredictable: it can be difficult for a

person to take adequate measures. Due to the large

number of allergens that can provoke an attack, it is

extremely difficult for patients with polyvalent

allergies to completely protect themselves from

interacting with them. Therefore, it is important to

provide people suffering form this disease with the

additional elements of self-help in case they

unexpectedly face appearance of the allergy attack

exacerbation symptoms (Inagaki, 2021). An

emergency intravenous injection of antihistamines or

hormones given before an ambulance arrives or, for

example, during a flight before an airplane lands at an

airport, could help avoid life-threatening complications

and jugulate the development of Quincke's edema or

anaphylactic shock (Plavunov et al, 2020).

A similar principle of reaction is also suitable for

patients with bronchial asthma, who observe a sharp

328

Korneeva, I., Kramar, K., Zabudko, M. and Shalobyta, E.

An Automatic Intravenous Drug Injection System.

DOI: 10.5220/0011012300003123

In Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2022) - Volume 1: BIODEVICES, pages 328-331

ISBN: 978-989-758-552-4; ISSN: 2184-4305

exacerbation of the disease against the background of

interaction with an allergen. In such situations,

intravenous administration of drugs can significantly

increase their bioavailability, compared, for example,

with more conventional inhalations (Dahat, 2021).

Injections into a muscle or vein are also the primary

way to lower blood pressure in persistent hypertension

that turns into a severe hypertensive crisis. More

recently, only elderly people suffered from

hypertension, but now this ailment is increasingly

diagnosed in younger patients. In addition, pregnant

women are susceptible to arterial hypertension after the

20th week. Until now, intravenous injections of

combination drugs based on magnesium sulfate remain

the most effective method of treating high blood

pressure in acute cases (Wang et al, 2019).

Treatment of hypertensive crises in elderly

patients is often complicated by the problems of

emergency medical care at home. Frequently, first aid

for the elderly requires special medications, some of

which are administered as intravenous injection. In

some cases, it is important to supply the injection

immediately. However, most people looking after

their aging relatives do not have the appropriate skills.

The situation becomes even more critical when an

elderly patient who suffers from high blood pressure

lives alone. A system that excludes waiting time for

medical attention and correct delivery of the injection

could become a possible solution.

In addition, there is a need to avoid complications

associated with an injection technique violation.

Among them the most common and dangerous are

sepsis, viral hepatitis and HIV infection, due to non-

compliance with the rules of asepsis and antiseptics,

and various violations caused by unsuccessful

venipuncture. In addition, there is a certain need to

find a good alternative to intramuscular injections,

which are often prescribed in the treatment of spinal

injuries, osteo-articular diseases and disorders of the

nervous system.

The danger of such injections lies in the fact that

in most cases, patients with the spinal injuries or

osteo-articular that do not require hospitalization

diseases are treating themselves according to the

doctor's guidance at home. This can lead to the fact

that people who do not have special medical training

unintentionally injure themselves with careless

administration of drugs. For example, a simple

injection administered in the gluteal muscle, often

lead to a serious complication such as sciatic nerve

injury (Jung Kim & Hyun Park, 2014). According to

official World Health Organization statistics, getting

such injuries is very common, even though not all

cases of sciatic nerve injuries are registered in

hospitals. For effective prevention of such injuries, it

is advisable to completely avoid intramuscular

injections, and when this is not possible, consider

replacing intramuscular administration of the drug

with intravenous system.

In view of all these considerations, the

development of a portable device that automates the

process of intravenous drugs administration is

essential for ensuring safe first aid in emergency

situations when the access of medical personnel to the

patient is difficult or impossible. The automatic

intravenous drug injection system, furthermore, is

able to protect patients who need regular injections

carried out outside the control of the qualified

medical personnel.

The aim of the study is to develop a portable

system for automatic intravenous drug injection to a

patient in the absence of medical personnel next to

him.

2 RESEARCH TASKS

To achieve this goal, the following tasks were solved:

1. Justification and selection of a set of instrumental

studies necessary for mapping blood vessels in

injection and determining the depth of puncture

in non-clinical conditions using portable

technical means.

2. Justification and development of methods for

mapping blood vessels in the injection area and

determining the puncture depth suitable for use

in a portable injection system.

3. Justification and development of a portable

system structure for the automatic intravenous

drug injection.

3 RESEARCH PROBLEMS

SOLUTIONS

3.1 Justification and Selection of a Set

of Instrumental Studies Necessary

for Mapping Blood Vessels in

Injection and Determining the

Depth of Puncture in Non-clinical

Conditions using Portable

Technical Means

For qualitative determination of the injection site and

puncture to the required depth, it is necessary to know

the spatial location of blood vessels in the anatomical

An Automatic Intravenous Drug Injection System

329

area of the injection, as well as the depth of each of

them.

To determine the spatial location of blood vessels

at the intended injection site, it is advisable to use a

thermographic method of investigation, since it is

non-invasive and simple in the study of subcutaneous

structures of the body. Thermography is based on the

method of obtaining a blood vessels subcutaneous

pattern using near-range infrared (IR) radiation. In

this method, the image of blood vessels positions in

the intended injection site, which does not depend on

the ambient temperature and the temperature of the

person himself, is formed.

There are two ways to obtain an image of blood

vessels using IR radiation. The first is based on the

transmission of IR radiation through the study area,

the second is based on the reflection of IR radiation.

For a portable device, the use of the second method is

preferable since its use involves fewer design

difficulties and allows making the system more

compact.

To determine the depth of the blood vessels under

the skin in the injection area, it is advisable to use

ultrasound examination methods. When using

ultrasound scanning, it becomes possible, firstly, to

distinguish the arteries and veins in the injection area,

and secondly, to calculate the distance to the anterior

wall of the required blood vessel.

There are various methods for calculating the

distance to the vessel wall, which are used, for

example, in carrying out the vein catheterization

under ultrasound control. Dopplerography, methods

of which allow to determine the type of blood vessel

and the distance to its walls by analyzing the direction

and speed of blood flow in the target vessel, is also

often used for puncturing blood vessels. Existing

studies prove the effectiveness of the ultrasound

methods during manipulations with blood vessels, for

example, during the implementation of vein

catheterization. It may be concluded therefore that the

ultrasound scans can also be used in the development

of an automatic injection system.

3.2 Justification and Development of

Methods for Mapping Blood

Vessels in the Injection Area and

Determining the Puncture Depth

Suitable for Use in a Portable

Injection System

It would be useful to divide the implementation of the

injection procedure using a portable automatic system

into three stages:

1. Generating image of subcutaneous blood vessels

at the intended injection site based on

thermography data.

2. Distance determination to the anterior wall of the

vein selected for injection using ultrasound

methods.

3. Injection into a vein using an automatic injection

system.

During the first stage, the intended injection site

is irradiated with near-range infrared radiation. Then

the thermogram is recorded in reflected IR light, after

which the obtained data is preprocessed, noise is

eliminated, and then, based on the analysis of the

obtained 2D image, a spatial map of blood vessels at

the intended injection site is formed.

During the second stage, a linear ultrasound scan

of the intended injection area is performed, based on

the obtained 2D image – visualization of the injection

area, a vein that has the most convenient location for

injection is selected, then the distance to its anterior

wall is calculated in accordance with a specific

technique, considering the specified trajectory of

needle insertion.

During the third stage, the drug is automatically

injected into the vein using a syringe with a thin

needle. The movement of the needle is carried out

according to a programmed trajectory.

The proposed methods are simple and effective to

achieve the purpose of the study. At the same time,

existing technologies, when used in conjunction with

the selected methods, allow to make the system of

automatic intravenous drug injection compact.

3.3 Justification and Development of a

Portable System Structure for the

Automatic Intravenous Drug

Injection

Figure 1: Generalized structure of the automatic drug

injection system.

The system for automatic intravenous drug injection

includes a mechanical moving head with an IR

scanner detector placed on it, whose signals are sent

RMHM 2022 - Special Session on Remote Management and Health Monitoring

330

to the machine vision subsystem to form a map of

blood vessels at the intended injection site, an

ultrasound scanner sensor to determine the depth of

the vessels, as well as an injection system in the form

of a syringe with a thin disposable needle. The control

module receives data from the ultrasound sensor and

the IR scanner, processes and analyses the data

obtained to map the location of vessels in the intended

injection area, selects the injection vessel and

calculates the distance to its anterior wall to

determine the depth of the puncture in accordance

with a predetermined needle insertion technique. The

results of processing the map of the vessels location

in the injection area, as well as visualization of the

injection area in the ultrasound range appears on the

display of the injection system. The stages of the

injection procedure are also managed by using the

control module, which drives the mechanical system

and thus the stages of the injection procedure are

changed. The control module includes elements that

manage the movement of each of the scanning parts

of the injection system, as well as elements for

starting and stopping the procedure and a system for

displaying the processing results.

The report discusses the results of the system

modules implementation using the component base of

mechatronics and electronics.

4 CONCLUSIONS

There are several diseases where the need to obtain a

therapeutic effect as soon as possible after the onset

of an attack becomes critically important for the

subsequent survival of the patient. One of the most

effective ways to deliver drugs to the body is

intravenous injection. The result of the study is the

structure of the injection system, which allows

through the use of non-invasive scanning systems to

accurately localize the injection site and inject the

drug intravenously in automatic mode, without the

need for the presence of medical personnel. The

results obtained allow us to summarize the experience

of developing non-invasive scanning systems for

localization of blood vessels, generalize the ways of

practical implementation of system elements using

the component base of mechatronics, improving the

accuracy of localization of the drugs injection point,

sum up a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of

automatic and medical injection.

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