It is an object of the present invention a method to introduce compounds inside red blood cells comprising: —providing red blood cells from a subject; —providing one or more compounds to be encapsulated in said red blood cells; —providing a loading device comprising a microporous matrix; —feeding said loading device with a suspension comprising said red blood cells and said one or more compounds; —collecting the red blood cells exiting from said loading device, which are encapsulated red blood cells; characterized in that: —said red blood cells and said one or more compound are in suspension at a pH of between 6.8 and 7.8, preferably of between 7.35 and 7.45; —the pores in said microporous matrix have a minimum size of at least 3 times the size of a red blood cell, that is a minimum size of at least 20 μm; —the pores in said microporous matrix have an average size of between 30 and 500 μm, or of between 40 and 400 μm, or of between 50 and 350 μm, or of between 100 and 250 μm; —said porous matrix has a length L of at least 1 mm and a width W and a height H such that it comprises at least one unit cell, said unit cell being equal to the microporous matrix volume that, repeated by rototranslation through the vectors that generate the matrix, fills the whole matrix itself; wherein said loading device is fed with said suspension in such a way to obtain an average fluid speed of between 10.sup.−4 and 10 m/s. Further objects of the present invention are a microporous matrix, a loading device comprising the same, a fluidic circuit and a machine for implementing said method and red blood cells encapsulated with at least one compound according to said method.

The invention relates to veterinary science. An extrarenal blood purification procedure is performed to remove toxins from the blood. Baseline parameters of urea and creatinine in the blood serum are measured during the blood purification procedure; on the basis of the data obtained, a dialysis intensity index (DII) is determined as the ratio of the patient's total fluid volume to the volume of the fluid purified of toxins and a uremic toxin accumulation index (UTAI) is determined as the rate of accumulation of the quantity of urea or creatinine per unit of time. Moreover, it is deemed necessary to repeat the hemodialysis procedure if the UTAI value for urea is more than 0.5 and/or the UTAI value for creatinine is more than 8, and/or the DII value is less than 0.9.

An extracorporeal and drug delivery system includes (i) a renal failure therapy machine operable with a blood filter in fluid communication with an arterial line and a venous line, the machine including (a) an effluent pump for pumping effluent from the blood filter at an effluent flowrate, and at least one of (b) a dialysis fluid pump for pumping dialysis fluid to the blood filter at a dialysis fluid flowrate, (c) a predilution pump for pumping replacement fluid into the arterial line at a predilution flowrate, or (d) a postdilution pump for pumping replacement fluid into the venous line at a postdilution flowrate; (ii) an infusion pump operable to deliver an intravenous (“IV”) drug to the patient at an IV drug flowrate; and (iii) a coordinating logic implementor configured to adjust the IV drug flowrate based on an amount of the IV drug removed via the effluent flowrate.

A dialysis machine (e.g., a peritoneal dialysis (PD) machine) can include a control unit configured to monitor an amount of fluid withdrawn from a heater bag line during a PD treatment. A processor in the control unit is configured to operate a first pump to draw fluid into a first pump chamber and measure a first fluid volume in the first pump chamber. The processor is further configured to operate the first pump and a second pump to transfer fluid from the first pump chamber to a second pump chamber, measure a second fluid volume in the second pump chamber, and determine a measured fluid volume for a single pump cycle based on the first fluid volume and the second fluid volume. The first fluid volume is correlated to the second fluid volume and, therefore, the multiple independent measurements increase an accuracy of the fluid volume measurement.

A method and device are provided for centrifugally separating plasma from whole blood in which whole blood is introduced into a flow circuit having a blood access device connected to a first tubing for drawing whole blood from a blood source and for flowing whole blood to a centrifugal separation chamber; a volume of saline is added to the whole blood as it flows through the first tubing to dilute the whole blood; the volume of saline added to the whole blood is tracked; the whole blood having the volume of saline added thereto is separated in the centrifugal separation chamber so that an interface is created between the plasma and added saline and the cellular components of the whole blood; the separated plasma and added saline is flowed from the centrifugal separation chamber to a collection container; and a volume for the plasma and added saline in the collection container is determined. The device includes a programmable controller configured operate a first pump to flow saline from the container of saline through the second tubing segment to the first tubing segment, track a volume of saline flowed from the container of saline through the second tubing segment to the first tubing segment, flow separated plasma and added saline from the separation chamber through the third tubing segment to the collection container, and determine a volume for the plasma and added saline in the collection container.

Methods and systems for processing and conditioning red blood cells are disclosed. The methods and systems may be used to make a readily transfusible red blood cell product with reduced plasma. In general, the plasma content of the supernatant of the red blood cell product is no greater than about 15%. The red blood cell products are prepared using the disclosed methods and systems remain transfusible for up to 42 days.

Described are embodiments that include methods and devices for separating composite liquids into components. Embodiments involve the use of a flexible membrane for separating a composite liquid into components. The composite liquid may include, in embodiments, a cellular containing liquid, such as whole blood or components of whole blood. In one specific embodiment, the composite liquid is a buffy coat.

A blood component collection system (10) includes a first internal pressure calculation unit (110) adapted to calculate a first internal pressure of a first pressed portion (60) using first calibration curve data (118), a second internal pressure calculation unit (112) adapted to calculate a second internal pressure of a second pressed portion (62) using second calibration curve data (120), and a correction unit (114) adapted to correct the first calibration curve data (118) in a manner so that the first internal pressure becomes equal to the second internal pressure in a state in which operation of a collection and returning pump (100) is stopped during at least one of a collection operation and a returning operation of a first cycle.

A blood component collection system (10) includes a first internal pressure calculation unit (110) adapted to calculate a first internal pressure of a first pressed portion (60) using first calibration curve data (118), a second internal pressure calculation unit (112) adapted to calculate a second internal pressure of a second pressed portion (62) using second calibration curve data (120), and a correction unit (114) adapted to correct the first calibration curve data (118) in a manner so that, during a blood returning operation, the first internal pressure calculated by the first internal pressure calculation unit (110) becomes equal to the second internal pressure calculated by the second internal pressure calculation unit (112).

Described are embodiments that include methods and devices for separating composite liquids into components. Embodiments involve the use of a flexible membrane for separating a composite liquid into components. The composite liquid may include, in embodiments, a cellular containing liquid, such as whole blood or components of whole blood. In one specific embodiment, the composite liquid is a buffy coat.