System for continuous withdrawal and analysis of blood

Abstract

A small, portable, constant withdrawal device is connected to tubing, including a catheter, whose internal walls are coated with heparin. The catheter is inserted intravenously through a disposal needle into a subject such as a human being. The subject may then move about for a selected period when blood is being slowly withdrawn at a prescribed rate and collected in a container within a housing supporting the device. The collected blood may then be analyzed to permit the measurement of the integrated concentration of glucose, growth hormone or other material in blood. In addition, a portable microdiffusion chamber is incorporated between the indwelling catheter and the extra corporal tubing and is electrically connected through a sensor probe to an associated sensory responsive device. This permits continuous analysis of the withdrawn blood to determine the in vivo concentration of circulating concentrations of materials in the blood.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.