Process and devices for determining the instant of injection and the duration of injection in thermodilution measurements

Abstract

The present invention relates to a process and devices for determining the instant of injection and the duration of injection in thermodilution measurements in which an injectate fluid at a temperature deviating from the temperature of the blood of a patient is injected at a specific injection site into a blood vessel of the patient and the temperature of the blood is measured at a measuring site downstream of the injection site, the injectate fluid being used at approximately room temperature and, before entry into the blood vessel, passed by a temperature sensor which, before the measurement, has a temperature deviating from room temperature, the temperature determined by the temperature sensor being sensed continuously, the instant of the beginning of injection being determined from a change occurring in the sensed temperature and the instant of the end of injection being determined from a subsequently occurring change in direction of the temperature profile.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.