System and method for maintaining working physiological resin bead gel composition within an artificial kidney
AssigneeCath Dry Global Corp.
InventorPascal Dabel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mechanical kidney transplant may include four modules to interconnect and clean blood. Blood flowing through at least one of the modules flows through dialyzer fiber/tubes, while an area surrounding that fiber/tubes receives a flow of physiological resin gel of a design that will remove impurities from the blood. A subsystem of one or more sensors (a) detects and sets an alarm condition when the physiological resin gel is degraded and may need partial or full replacement, and/or (b) detects and sets an alarm condition if blood leakage has occurred within the module.
Claims16
In an implantable artificial kidney system comprising a plurality of pumps, including at least a first pump for flowing blood through dialysis tubing and a second pump for flowing physiological resin gel through a module, wherein the resin gel flows in the module through an area surrounding the dialysis tubing that contains the flowing blood and collects blood waste products for later deposit into a patient's urethra, the improvement comprising:
- (i) a physiological resin gel flow meter, and
- (ii) a processing unit coupled with said flow meter,
- wherein the processing unit triggers an alarm when physiological resin gel is sensed to have integrity below a threshold.
In a method for using an implantable artificial kidney to clean blood, wherein the method comprises operating a plurality of pumps, including at least a first pump for flowing blood through dialysis tubing and a second pump for flowing physiological resin gel through a module, wherein the resin gel flows in the module through an area surrounding the dialysis tubing that contains the flowing blood and collects blood waste products for later deposit into a patient's urethra, the improvement comprising:
- (i) activating a physiological resin gel flow meter,
- (ii) receiving the output of the flow meter at a processing unit, and
- (iii) triggering an alarm when physiological resin gel is sensed to have integrity below a threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.