Apparatuses and methods for treating neurological and/or neuropsychiatric disorders are by application of thermal energy to the patient's forehead region, for example, by maintaining a target temperature or temperature range to the forehead of a patient for a time period. In particular, described herein are regional brain cooling mechanisms to treat neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, and autism.

Dialysis machines comprising a feed arrangement to supply a dialysis fluid to a dialyzer during dialysis treatment and a return arrangement to remove the dialysis fluid from the dialyzer during dialysis treatment and forward it to an exit; a feed recirculation circuit to allow a fluid of the feed arrangement to be re-circulated in a fluid loop path comprising, at least a portion of, the feed arrangement and the feed recirculation circuit and a return recirculation circuit to allow a fluid of the return arrangement to re-circulate in an auxiliary fluid loop path comprising, at least a portion of, the return arrangement and the return recirculation circuit. A controller configured to perform disinfection by re-circulating a disinfectant and/or a heated fluid through said fluid loop path and/or through said auxiliary fluid loop path. The dialysis machine further comprises a feed forward arrangement connected to the fluid loop path and arranged to enable a fluid of the feed arrangement to be forwarded to the exit by-passing the auxiliary fluid loop path.

Personal thermal stability control herein provides for personalized temperature regulation dependent upon biometric sensor feedback, sleep stage, and so on, particularly for sleeping users, predicting and preemptively responding to fluctuations indicative of thermal stability, resulting from such things as transitions between sleep stages, hot flashes, night sweats, and general thermal instability. Specifically, in one embodiment, a system herein may comprise: an on-demand cooling system; one or more biometric sensors configured to monitor one or more corresponding indicators of thermal stability of a user; and a controller configured to: a) receive the one or more corresponding indicators of thermal stability of the user; b) predict an onset of a thermal instability of the user based on the one or more corresponding indicators of thermal stability of the user; and c) activate the on-demand cooling system to counteract the predicted onset of a thermal instability of the user.

The present disclosure describes a novel therapeutic apheresis system and, more specifically, methods and an apparatus for performing therapeutic apheresis. The present disclosure provides highly efficient methods for therapeutic apheresis that modulate the immune system, thereby resulting in treatment of one or more underlying immunological disease processes. In some embodiments, the disclosed methods return at least a portion of blood from an extracorporeal circuit to a patient in pulsatile flow, where the portion of blood that is returned is augmented. In other embodiments, the disclosed methods and apparatus use the central arterial system to exchange volumes of plasma to immunomodulate disease processes. The disclosed methods combine concepts of intermittent flow and continuous flow therapeutic apheresis with established cardiovascular concepts. In addition, the disclosed methods reduce the amount of time spent by patients in therapeutic apheresis sessions and decrease patients' dependence on immunological drugs that may have detrimental adverse effects.

An intravenous fluid conditioning system includes a housing having a first chamber and a second chamber. A volume of heat transfer medium is located in the first chamber and the second chamber. A first intravenous fluid line extends through the first chamber and a second intravenous fluid line extends through the second chamber. One or more thermoelectric devices are located in the housing, such that a first side of each of the one or more thermoelectric devices is in thermal communication with the first chamber and a second side of each of the one or more thermoelectric devices opposite the first side is in thermal communication with the second chamber. The one or more thermoelectric devices exchange thermal energy with a volume of intravenous fluid selectably flowed through the first intravenous fluid line or the second intravenous fluid line to condition the intravenous fluid.

A system including tubing and a filter configured to be fluidly coupled to a vacuum source and to a heater/cooler unit by the tubing. The filter includes a filter container having negative air pressure in the filter container provided by the vacuum source to pull aerosol from the heater/cooler unit into the filter container and eliminate and/or reduce the aerosol emitted from the heater/cooler unit.

A device for conditioning blood including a heat exchanger module including a heat exchanger fiber layer including heat exchanger fibers to receive a heat exchanger fluid and exchange heat with the blood, a gaseous micro-emboli removal module including a micro-porous fiber layer including micro-porous fibers to receive atmospheric or sub-atmospheric pressures such that at least some gaseous micro-emboli are drawn from the blood through the micro-porous fibers, a gas exchanger module including a gas exchanger fiber layer including gas exchanger fibers to receive a gas mixture and exchange gas with the blood, and a potting material body that embeds the heat exchanger fibers, the micro-porous fibers, and the gas exchanger fibers and defines a blood compartment that extends through the heat exchanger module, the gaseous micro-emboli removal module, and the gas exchanger module.

A heat exchanger for a blood circulation circuit comprises a hollow fiber membrane layer having a plurality of hollow fiber membranes, and a fixing portion fixing both end portions of the hollow fiber membranes from outsides of the hollow fiber membranes. The fixing portion mainly contains polyurethane, and each of the hollow fiber membranes has a heat conductive layer containing high density polyethylene, and an adhesion layer provided on an outside of the heat conductive layer, bonded to the fixing portion, and mainly containing a modified polyolefin resin.

An apparatus and method use a catheter for specific and discriminate treatment of central nervous system disease. With the catheter, selective hypothermia to the brain and/or the spinal cord for injury protection can be achieved without the need for systemic cooling. The catheter is also capable of draining excess cerebrospinal fluid.

A position-assisting device for milk expression includes an upright body wedge pillow that defines a back side that has an armrest, a front user-engagement side that is sloped back, lateral sides, and a bottom side. The upright body wedge pillow has an upper head-rest section and an interior cavity that has a front face that opens to the front user-engagement side so as to be able to receive a woman's breasts for milk expression. There are breast pumps located in the interior cavity for milk expression.