US 8,801,918 B2 · Point of care heparin determination system

Abstract

Methods and devices for point of care determination of heparin concentration in blood are described. Cartridges including protamine ion sensitive electrodes (ISEs) and reference electrodes and systems for automatically determining heparin concentration in the cartridges are provided. Some systems add blood to a protamine bolus sufficient to bind all heparin, leaving excess protamine. The excess protamine concentration can be determined by measuring the initial slope of the electrode potential rate of change, and comparing the slope to known protamine concentration slope values In some cartridges, an oscillating pressure source moves the blood-protamine mixture back and forth across the protamine ISE. Some systems also use a second blood sample having the heparin removed or degraded to create a blank reference sample. Protamine ISEs can include polyurethane polymer, DNNS ionophore, and NPOE plasticizer. The polyurethane may include hard segments and soft segments, where both hard and soft segments may include cyclic and straight chain aliphatic moieties having essentially no ester or ether groups. Some hard segments may include methylene diphenyl groups. Some reference electrodes have the same polymer, plasticizer, and ionophore as the measurement electrode, but with a different concentration of ionophore.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A method for measuring heparin in a first blood sample, the method comprising:

inactivating essentially ell the heparin in the first blood sample to create a reference sample;
measuring the output of a first ion selective electrode pair exposed to the reference sample, the first electrode pair having a protamine ion selective electrode and a reference electrode;
measuring the output of a second ion selective electrode pair exposed to a second blood sample, the second electrode pair having a protamine ion selective electrode and a reference electrode;
and
determining the second sample heparin amount including using the second electrode pair output adjusted by the first electrode pair output.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Point of care heparin determination system

Life of this patent

Point of care heparin determination system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims12