Blood Sequestration Chamber With Venting for Cleaner Culture Sampling

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing blood culture tests suffer from high false positive rates due to contamination during sample collection, leading to unnecessary antibiotic treatments and increased healthcare costs.

Innovation Solution

A blood sequestration device that isolates an initial portion of the blood sample before delivery to a collection vessel, using mechanisms like vented chambers and elastomeric valves to divert potentially contaminated blood, and automatically retracts the needle tip for safety.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If a blood filtration device is used to remove air bubbles and contaminants, then blood purity is improved, but the device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveblood purityVSAvoiddevice complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The blood filtration device is divided into distinct functional segments: a sequestration chamber for isolating contaminated blood, a filtration chamber with filter media for removing contaminants, and a vent path for air bubble removal. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function efficiently while maintaining overall system manageability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The vent path is integrated within the filtration chamber structure, and the filtration media is contained within the filtration chamber which is itself part of the larger blood filtration device. This nested arrangement reduces overall device complexity by combining multiple functions within a unified structural framework.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #7Nested doll (Nesting)

2Object-affected harmful factors

If a sequestration chamber is added to isolate contaminated blood, then patient safety is improved, but the device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepatient safetyVSAvoiddevice complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-affected harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The sequestration chamber extracts and isolates the potentially contaminated portion of blood from the main blood flow before it can reach the patient. By separating the contaminated blood into a dedicated chamber, the device prevents harmful factors from affecting the patient while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The sequestration chamber performs preliminary isolation of contaminated blood at the beginning of the filtration process, before the blood enters the filtration chamber or returns to the patient. This preliminary action prevents contaminants from progressing further through the system.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Device complexity

If air bubbles are allowed to remain in the blood flow, then device simplicity is maintained, but patient safety deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedevice simplicityVSAvoidpatient safety
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The vent path acts as an intermediary channel that provides a dedicated route for air bubbles to escape from the sequestration chamber. This simple structural addition allows air removal without requiring complex active pumping or filtration systems for gas elimination.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentEP4527293B1Blood sequestration device
Publication Date: 2026.05.13 ICU MEDICAL INC
  • EP4527293B1 patent drawingFigure 1A~1C
  • EP4527293B1 patent drawingFigure 2A~2B
  • EP4527293B1 patent drawingFigure 3A~3B

AI summary

A blood sequestration device configured to isolate an initial, potentially contaminated portion of blood from the flow of blood of a patient, prior to directing the flow of blood to an outlet port where the blood can be accessed. The blood sequestration device including a body member having an interior wall defining a fluid conduit having a distal portion, a first proximal portion, and a second proximal portion, wherein the first proximal portion defines a sequestration chamber configured to isolate an initial portion of blood of a flow of blood, a vent path configured to enable the escape of gas initially trapped within the sequestration chamber.