Pressure sensing

Abstract

A biological fluid device comprises a pressure sensor, which is arranged on the device. The pressure sensor comprises a compressible container, the compression of which is indicative of the pressure, and is capable of wireless communication.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to management of fluids used in a medical procedure and more specifically to pressure sensing in a biological fluid. BACKGROUND [0002] There are a number of procedures in which biological fluids such as blood, blood components as well as mixtures of blood or blood components with other fluids as well as any other liquid comprising biological cells, are managed. Examples of such procedures include treatments where blood is taken out in an extracorporeal blood circuit. Such treatments involve, for example, hemodialysis, hemofiltration, hemodiafiltration, plasmapheresis, blood component separation, blood oxygenation, etc. Normally, blood is removed from a blood vessel at a blood access and returned to the same blood vessel. During these procedures it is often desirable and also important to monitor the pressure in the biological fluid system. [0003] U.S. patent application 20020007137 describes a prior art dialysis pressure sensing s...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0021] An advantage of the invention is that, by disposing with the need for structurally connecting a pressure sensor to an extracorporeal blood circuit, thereby minimizing the air-blood interface, risks of cross contamination between patients and / or operators are avoided.

[0022] Another advantage is that it is easy to set-up and thereby avoiding risks of leakage, which may be dangerous to an operator of the system.

[0023] Yet another advantage of the present invention is that it provides an integrated pressure sensor which is sufficiently inexpensive to allow each device to be disposed of after each use.

Problems solved by technology

Even though the extracorporeal blood circuit typically is in the form of a disposable arrangement there is a risk of cross contamination between patients.

In case the blood flow is blocked there is a potential risk that the backpressure exerted on the blood by the air column in the connector line is overcome and that blood reach a protective filter, protecting the pressure sensor.

In such a case, cross contamination could occur if this situation reoccurs with another patient connected to the machine and the machine has not been cleaned properly.

Also there is a potential risk that bacteria could grow in blood residuals at the protective filter.

Another problem is that of leakage, which may occur due to operator mistakes during set-up of the system.

Needless to say, leakage could be of danger to an operator of the system in case contaminated blood is present in the system.

Leakage may also lead to erroneous or less accurate pressure measurements.

Hence, electrical contact problems may occur due to presence of spillage (or contamination) of fluids such as blood as well as contamination of particles such as salt crystals and burrs.

Needless to say, electrical connectors open to touch by operator, may also constitute an added risk of an operator being subject to electric shock.

Moreover, electric wiring and connectors that are needed for transmission of pressure information from pressure sensors according to prior art are unnecessarily complicated and adds to the risk of mistakes during use.

Thus, there is a general problem of how to provide a disposable fluid arrangement which is electrically safe, avoids risks relating to accumulation of spillage (or contamination) of fluids as well as particles, is easy to set-up, avoid leakage and which reduces the risk of cross contamination between patients and / or operators of the system.

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