Dielectric sensing to characterize hemostatic dysfunction

As one example, an apparatus includes a dielectric microsensor having a microfluidic chamber that includes a capacitive sensing structure. The microfluidic chamber is adapted to receive a volume of a blood sample, and a bioactive agent is adapted to interact with the blood sample, as a sample under test (SUT), within the microfluidic chamber. A transmitter can provide an input radio frequency (RF) signal to the dielectric microsensor, and a receiver can receive an output RF signal from the dielectric microsensor. A computing device is configured to compute dielectric permittivity values for the SUT based on the output RF signal over a time interval in which the dielectric permittivity values are representative of the bioactive agent interacting with the blood sample over the time interval. The computing device is further configured to provide a readout representative of hemostatic dysfunction for the blood sample based on the dielectric permittivity values.