US 6,159,186 AGranted

Infusion delivery system

AssigneeWFT Projects (Proprietary) Limited

InventorsTerrence Wickham, Brian Clement Goemans

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Abstract

Apparatus for providing control of infusion delivery using conventional infusion fluid bags includes an air bag which is pressurised by a pneumatic pump. A digital camera or imaging device is able to analyse drops passing through a drop chamber, by capturing an image of the drop as it passes through the drop chamber. The output of the imaging device is fed to an image processor which calculates the volume of the captured drop using the number of pixels in the image. An infra red detector detects each time a drops passes through the drop chamber, and the outputs of the both the image processor and the infra red detector are passed to a master controller. The master controller controls the fluid delivery process by counting the number of drops passing through the drop chamber and controlling a flow brake to achieve the required flow rate.

Claims9

Dependent claims

Apparatus for controlling infusion delivery via a drop chamber having an inlet for liquid, an outlet below the inlet, and a space between the inlet and the outlet, the apparatus comprising:

drop detection means for detecting each drop of a plurality of drops falling through the chamber and for providing a trigger signal on detection thereof;
a light source ressponsive to the trigger signal to illuminate falling drops briefly for recordal of a frozen image thereof;
imaging means defining a two-dimensional multi-pixel array for acquiring data corresponding to two-dimensional images of drops falling through the drop chamber;
first processor means for calculating the volume of the drops from the data by calculating the number of pixels in each drop image, and for calculating the liquid flow rate through the drop chamber from the calculated volume of the imaged drops and the number of drops detected;
and
control means for comparing the calculated liquid flow rate with a desired or predetermined flow rate value and for controlling the flow rate of liquid entering and/or leaving the drop chamber to correspond to the desired or predetermined value.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.