Dialysis is a procedure that filters as much waste products of metabolism as possible, due to kidney disease. Because of repeatable use of syringes and low blood flow of the blood vessels, an arteriovenous access is created. Because of this, the vein increases in its diameter, which is wanted only during dialysis. In practice, the diameter of the vein can increase dramatically, which is the main problem.
In this thesis, the development of a control system concept for controlling blood flow of an arteriovenous graft is demonstrated. For the development, the correct linear actuator with an adjustable stroke is needed. Furthermore, a mechanism for squeezing the graft needs to be created and analyzed. The whole system is controlled by an Arduino microcontroller, that supports wireless communication. Furthermore, an application for a mobile phone was created with Xamarin/C# programming language.
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