Medical apparatus for monitoring body liquid discharge

Medical apparatus useful for measuring the discharge of a liquid, such as urine, from a patient's body, comprising:

• a container of fixed dimensions formed by a wall including a bottom wall portion having interior and exterior surfaces;
• an inlet port formed in said container spaced from said bottom wall portion;
• a flexible tube having a distal end coupled to said container inlet port and a proximal end adapted to be coupled to said body;
• housing means for removably receiving said container with said inlet port vertically above said bottom wall portion to cause liquid entering said inlet port to pool over said bottom wall portion;
• said housing means including a transducer located so as to engage said bottom wall portion exterior surface when said container is received in said housing means so as to bacteriologically isolate said transducer from the liquid in said container;
• and
• processor means for energizing said transducer to transmit a pulse and for measuring the time duration required for the pulse to travel through said bottom wall portion and said liquid pool to the upper surface thereof and for determining the volume of liquid in said pool based on said measured time duration.

In a medical apparatus including a container for collecting a liquid such as urine discharged from a patient's body, a subsystem for measuring the volume of liquid collected in said container, said subsystem comprising:

• transducer means energizable to transmit a pulse through said liquid and receive a pulse reflected from the surface of said liquid;
• means for periodically energizing said transducer means to transmit a series of pulses;
• means for measuring the time duration required for each pulse to travel from said transducer means through said liquid to the surface thereof and from said surface through said liquid to said transducer means;
• noise reduction means for evaluating whether each time duration measurement is good or bad;
• and
• means responsive to a predetermined number of good time duration measurements for determining the volume of liquid in said container.

A disposable container for collecting a liquid discharged from a patient's body useful in a medical apparatus including an electronic subsystem for measuring the volume of liquid collected in said container, said container comprising:

• a substantially rigid wall formed to define spaced front and rear wall portions and spaced top and bottom wall portions enveloping an internal volume of fixed dimensions;
• an inlet nipple formed in said wall proximate to said top wall portion and adapted to receive the distal end of a catheter tube thereon;
• said bottom wall portion including a central flat section, first and second side sections contiguous with and on opposite sides of said flat section, and a rear section contiguous with said flat section and said side sections, said flat section having a smooth external surface for direct contact with an ultrasonic transducer means and wherein said side and rear sections slope downwardly toward said central flat section for causing liquid entering said inlet nipple to pool over said flat section;
• and
• drip chamber means including a shelf formed in said container between said inlet nipple and said bottom wall portion for preventing the formation of a continuous liquid column from said catheter tube to said liquid pool.

In a medical apparatus including a container for collecting a liquid such as urine discharged from a patient's body, a subsystem for displaying data indicative of the rate said liquid is discharged by said patient, said subsystem comprising:

• means for periodically deriving a sample indicative of the volume of liquid in said container;
• means for comparing each newly derived sample with one or more previously derived samples to test whether or not each newly derived sample is good;
• means responsive to a sequence of N good samples for developing a volume reading representing the current liquid volume in said container;
• means for continually measuring elapsed real time;
• and
• means responsive to the difference between successively developed volume readings and said means for measuring elapsed real time for displaying data indicative of the rate of accummulation of liquid in said container.