Anti-infection fluidic channel
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsTingtao ZHOU, Xuan WAN, Paul W. STERNBERG, Chiara DARAIO, Zhengyu HUANG, Zongyi LI, Zhiwei PENG, John F. BRADY, Animashree ANANDKUMAR
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for altering the geometry of a fluid channel to prevent upstream mobility of bacteria, using angled obstacles on the interior of the channel that among other things creates vortices that restrict the mobility. An optimized geometry can be realized by an artificial intelligence algorithm or similar methods based on performance of various configurations of obstacle parameters.
Claims14
A catheter having a urine flow direction, the catheter comprising:
- a plurality of protuberances on an interior surface of the catheter, each of the protuberances having a first side facing into the flow direction at a first angle from the interior surface and a second side facing away from the flow direction at a second angle from the interior surface and a vertex between the first side and the second side and a base length from where the first side connects to the interior surface to where the second side connects to the interior surface, each of the plurality of protuberances being configured to create vortices during a flow of fluid in the urine flow direction;
- the first angle being different from the second angle, such that each protuberance has an asymmetrical profile and wherein the first angle is greater than 90 degrees and the second angle is less than 90 degrees;
- and
- the base length of each of the plurality of protuberances being less than one half the distance between vertices of adjacent protuberances.
A method of making a catheter having a urine flow direction, the method comprising:
- providing a catheter tube with an inner channel;
- providing a plurality of protuberances on an interior surface of the inner channel, each of the protuberances having a first side facing into the flow direction at a first angle from the interior surface and a second side facing away from the flow direction at a second angle from the interior surface and a vertex between the first side and the second side and a base length from where the first side connects to the interior surface to where the second side connects to the interior surface, each of the plurality of protuberances being configured to create vortices during a flow of fluid in the urine flow direction;
- the first angle being different from the second angle, such that each protuberance has an asymmetrical profile and wherein the first angle is greater than 90 degrees and the second angle is less than 90 degrees;
- and
- the base length of each of the plurality of protuberances being less than one half the distance between vertices of adjacent protuberances.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.