A blood purification apparatus employing a single-needle double-pump method and being capable of automatically discharging a priming solution that has undergone substitution from a blood circuit during blood removal. A blood purification apparatus includes a blood circuit to which an only puncture needle is connectable, a dialyzer that purifies blood flowing in the blood circuit, a first blood pump, a second blood pump, and a control device that allows the blood of a patient to be extracorporeally circulated through the blood circuit by causing the first blood pump and the second blood pump to alternately undergo normal rotation. During blood removal, the control device operates to substitute a priming solution in the blood circuit with the blood of the patient and to discharge the priming solution having undergone the substitution from the blood circuit by causing the first blood pump to undergo normal rotation and the second blood pump to undergo reverse rotation.

A medical fluid management assembly includes: a pneumatic manifold including a plurality of pneumatic passageways and a plurality of pneumatic connectors; a pump and valve engine including a plurality of valve chambers and at least one pump chamber, the pump and valve engine including a plurality of pneumatic connectors mated sealingly and releaseably with the pneumatic connectors of the pneumatic manifold, the pump and valve engine further including a plurality of fluid connectors; and a fluid manifold including a plurality of fluid pathways and a plurality of fluid connectors mated sealingly and releaseably with the fluid connectors of the pump and valve engine.

An airtrap for a medical or physiological fluid in one embodiment includes a conical housing having a radius that increases from its top to its bottom when the housing is positioned for operation; a medical or physiological fluid inlet located at an upper portion of the conical housing; a medical or physiological fluid outlet located at a lower portion of the conical housing, the inlet and the outlet positioned and arranged so that medical or physiological fluid spirals in an increasing arc around an inside of the conical housing downwardly from the inlet to the outlet; and a gas collection area located at an upper portion of the conical housing. In another embodiment, the airtrap is shaped like a seahorse having a head section and a tail section. Any of the airtraps herein may be used for example in blood sets, peritoneal dialysis cassette tubing, and drug delivery sets.

A blood purification apparatus with a blood circuit that allows a patient's blood to extracorporeally circulate and a blood purifier connected to the blood circuit and that purifies the blood in extracorporeal circulation are attachable, the blood purification apparatus including a dialysate introduction line through which dialysate is introduced into the blood purifier; a dialysate drain line through which waste dialysate resulting from blood purification performed by the blood purifier is drained from the blood purifier; and a concentration-detecting unit that detects a concentration of a predetermined substance in the waste dialysate flowing through the dialysate drain line. The blood purification apparatus includes a control unit that establishes a state of equilibrium where the concentration of the predetermined substance in the waste dialysate flowing through the dialysate drain line and a concentration of the predetermined substance in the blood flowing through the blood circuit are equal or approximate to each other; a storage unit that stores a value detected by the concentration-detecting unit in the state of equilibrium as an equilibrium value; and a clear-space-calculating unit that calculates clear space in accordance with the value detected by the concentration-detecting unit and the equilibrium value stored in the storage unit, the clear space being an index representing a volume of purification of a patient achieved by blood purification treatment.

Microbubbles detached from a blood circuit and a blood purification unit are discharged with the use of a backflow generated at the instant that a roller of a blood pump releases a squeezable tube. In a normal rotation step, a region filled with a priming solution after a priming step is closed by a closing unit, and a rotor of a blood pump is rotated normally until a roller of the blood pump releases a squeezable tube to generate a backflow. After the backflow is generated at the release of the squeezable tube by the roller of the blood pump, bubbles are moved by reversely rotating the rotor while disabling the closing by the closing unit. Thus, the bubbles are discharged through a discharge unit.

Automated control mechanisms and methods for controlling fluid flow in a hemodialysis apparatus are described. The methods can involve a controller receiving information from a pressure sensor in a control chamber of a reciprocating diaphragm-based blood pump and causing the application of a time-varying pressure waveform on a diaphragm of the blood pump during a fill-stroke of the blood pump. The controller can be configured and programmed to monitor a pressure variation in the control chamber measured by the pressure sensor and to compare the measured pressure variation to a pre-determined value. Based on such comparison, the controller can initiate a procedure to pause or stop a dialysate pump of the hemodialysis apparatus if the magnitude of the measured pressure variation deviates from the pre-determined value.

The present invention relates generally to improved systems and methods for removing undesirable material residing in vessels. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for using at least one cannula to remove substantially en bloc, from a site of obstruction or interest, undesirable material without fragmentation and without excessive fluid loss.

The present teachings relate to a blood purification apparatus in which the connection of a substitution line to a collecting port can be checked accurately and instantly and even during blood purification treatment. A blood purification apparatus includes a blood circuit, a dialyzer, a dialysate introduction line, a dialysate drain line, a substitution line one end of which is connected to a collecting port provided at a predetermined position of the dialysate introduction line and an other end of which is connected to the blood circuit, a substitution pump configured to form a pressure-increasing portion that includes the collecting port, and a pressure-measuring device capable of measuring a pressure in the pressure-increasing portion. The blood purification apparatus performs a testing process by increasing a liquid pressure in the pressure-increasing portion by utilizing a liquid-feeding pressure applied from a liquid-feeding device and measuring the pressure with the pressure-measuring device.

The introduction pipe is extend from an inlet port to the inside of the chamber body, and has, as an end opening thereof, a discharge port provided in the inner circumferential surface of the chamber body so as to be directed toward the circumferential direction. The inner circumferential surface of the chamber body is provided so as to spirally extend, along the circumferential direction, from a discharge point at which the discharge port is disposed, to a connection point at which the outer circumferential surface of the introduction pipe is connected to the inner circumferential surface of the chamber body. The inner circumferential surface is formed such that a second radius connecting the connection point to the center axis of the chamber body is shorter than a first radius connecting the discharge point to the center axis of the chamber body.

Systems for monitoring fluid flow in an extracorporeal blood circuit are described. The blood circuit of such systems can include plod pump having a pumping chamber of the blood pump separated from a control chamber of the blood pump by a flexible diaphragm. The control chamber can be configured to transmit positive or negative pressure to operate the diaphragm. The system can include a pressure sensor configured to measure pressure in the control chamber of the blood pump, and a controller configured to receive information from the pressure sensor and to control the delivery of pressure to the control chamber of the blood pump. The controller can also be configured to cause the application of a time-varying pressure waveform on the blood pump diaphragm during a fill-stroke of the blood pump, and to monitor a pressure variation in the control chamber measured by the pressure sensor. When so configured, such controller can transmit a value representing a magnitude of the measured pressure variation to a display associated with the extracorporeal blood circuit.