Catheter
AssigneePa Knowledge Limited
InventorsRichard Harley Grenville Owen, Stephen Blatcher, Stewart Maddison Fox, Martin Lawrence Hughes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A catheter for insertion into a blood vessel, the catheter having a sampling part arranged to capture a blood sample at a plurality of locations along a length of the blood vessel and an apparatus arranged to analyse blood taken from a plurality of locations along the length of the blood vessel and to provide a profile of concentration levels along the length of the blood vessel.
Claims25
1-32. (canceled)
A catheter for insertion into a blood vessel, the catheter having a sampling part arranged to capture a plurality of discrete blood samples at a plurality of respective locations along a length of the blood vessel wherein the sampling part includes:
- an axially elongate sample member having an axial array of a plurality of openings for receiving blood from outside the catheter at intervals along said length of the blood vessel;
- and
- an elongate sleeve coaxial with the sample member, the sleeve defining an axial passage for housing the sample member and including a plurality of through holes corresponding to respective openings, wherein the through holes are positioned so that, with withdrawal of the sleeve axially from the sample member, all of the openings are exposed simultaneously to blood outside the catheter so as to collect a respective plurality of samples along said length of the blood vessel.
A catheter system comprising:
- a catheter for insertion into a blood vessel, the catheter having a sampling part arranged to capture a plurality of discrete blood samples at a plurality of respective locations along a length of the blood vessel, the sampling part including:
- an axially elongate sample member having an axial array of a plurality of openings for receiving blood from outside the catheter at intervals along said length of the blood vessel;
- and
- an elongate sleeve coaxial with the sample member, the sleeve defining an axial passage for housing the sample member and including a plurality of through holes corresponding to respective openings, wherein the through holes are positioned so that, with withdrawal of the sleeve axially from the sample member, all of the openings are exposed simultaneously to blood outside the catheter so as to collect a respective plurality of samples along said length of the blood vessel;
- and
- an apparatus for analysing blood samples captured by the catheter, the apparatus being arranged to analyse blood taken from a plurality of locations along said length of the blood vessel and to provide a profile of concentration levels along said length of the blood vessel.
A method of profiling a length of a blood vessel using a catheter for insertion into a blood vessel, the catheter having a sampling part arranged to capture a plurality of discrete blood samples at a plurality of respective locations along a length of the blood vessel, the sampling part including an axially elongate sample member having an axial array of a plurality of openings for receiving blood from outside the catheter at intervals along said length of the blood vessel and an elongate sleeve coaxial with the sample member, the sleeve defining an axial passage for housing the sample member and including a plurality of through holes corresponding to respective openings, wherein the through holes are positioned so that, with withdrawal of the sleeve axially from the sample member, all of the openings are exposed simultaneously to blood outside the catheter so as to collect a respective plurality of samples along said length of the blood vessel, the method including using the catheter to take a plurality of blood samples at a plurality of respective locations along the length of the blood vessel so as to provide a profile of concentration levels along the length of the blood vessel.
A method of profiling a length of a blood vessel including taking a plurality of blood samples at a plurality of respective locations along the length of the blood vessel so as to provide a profile of concentration levels along the length of the blood vessel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.