Back to results
US 12,605,514 B2Granted
Vascular access methods
AssigneeX9, Inc.
InventorsEric Taylor, Brock Kopp, Alok Agrawal, Sean Casley, Pablo Acosta, Russell Pribanic, Earl Bright, II, Jonathan Podmore
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for delivering needles or catheters within target tissue including an apparatus that includes or a method involving, structure configured for placing a needle, a catheter or a cannula to provide vascular access. In one or more approaches, a vascular access device or system is provided for hemodialysis.
Claims13
A method of assessing health of a fistula with an ultrasound vascular access system, the method comprises the steps of:
- placing the ultrasound vascular access system against a skin above the fistula;
- controlling adjacent elements of at least one of a first ultrasound transducer array parallel to and separated from a second ultrasound transducer array when the ultrasound vascular access system is placed against the skin above the fistula;
- using the ultrasound vascular access system to identify the fistula;
- using the first ultrasound transducer array to generate a doppler signal and measure blood flow through the fistula using the doppler signal;
- assessing a characteristic of the blood flow wherein the characteristic includes at least one of blood flow velocity, volumetric blood flow rate, pulsatility and flow direction;
- using the characteristic of blood flow to assess the health of the fistula;
- using sensors to recognize vibrations coming from the fistula;
- and
- comparing the recognized vibrations to previously collected patient measurements.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.