A respiratory therapy device comprising at least one fan unit for generating a respiratory airflow for carrying out respiratory therapy. The fan unit comprises a housing and at least one fan wheel rotatably mounted in the housing. Respiratory air is transported through a channel formed inside the housing, which housing comprises at least one structural element, which reduces the sound emission.

Disclosed are dry powder inhalers for delivering medicament to a user from a blister pack, the blister pack having a plurality of spaced-apart blister pockets containing doses of the medicament. The inhalers comprise: a housing for accommodating unused and used portions of the blister pack together with a dispensing mechanism for selectively opening the blister pockets; and a manifold component through which air can be drawn in use of the inhaler. The manifold component comprises: a primary air inlet opening for receiving first external air; an air outlet opening for providing the external air from the primary air inlet opening into an opened blister pocket, the primary air inlet opening being fluidly connected to the air outlet opening by a primary air delivery conduit formed in the manifold component; a medicament inlet opening for receiving air-entrained medicament from the opened blister pocket, the air outlet opening and the medicament inlet opening being arranged side-by-side to enable simultaneous communication with the opened blister pocket; and a medicament outlet opening for delivery of the air-entrained medicament from the opened blister pocket to the user, the medicament inlet opening being fluidly connected to the medicament outlet opening by a medicament delivery conduit formed in the manifold component. The disclosed inhalers embodiments provide a variety of improvements to the design of the manifold component.

Disclosed is a dry powder inhaler for delivering medicament from at least one blister pack, each blister pack having a plurality of spaced-apart blister pockets containing doses of the medicament. The inhaler comprises: a housing for accommodating unused and used portions of the at least one blister pack together with a dispensing mechanism for simultaneously opening at least two blister pockets at a time; and a manifold component through which air can be drawn in use of the inhaler. The manifold component comprises: first and second air inlet openings for receiving external air a first air outlet opening for providing the external air to a first opened blister pocket and a first medicament inlet opening for receiving air-entrained medicament from the first opened blister pocket, the first air outlet opening and the first medicament inlet opening being arranged side-by-side to enable simultaneous communication with the first opened blister pocket; a second air outlet opening for providing the external air to a second opened blister pocket and a second medicament inlet opening for receiving air-entrained medicament from the second opened blister pocket, the second air outlet opening and the second medicament inlet opening being arranged side-by-side to enable simultaneous communication with the second opened blister pocket; and a medicament outlet opening for delivery of the air-entrained medicament from the first and second opened blister pockets to the user, the first and second medicament inlet openings being fluidly connected to the medicament outlet opening by a medicament delivery conduit formed in the manifold component. The first and second air inlet openings are fluidly connected to the first and second air outlet openings by respective first and second air conduits in the manifold component, wherein the air conduits are separately provided so that the external air from each of the first and second air inlet openings does not mix with the external air from the other of the first and second air inlet openings before reaching the first and second opened blister pockets.

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.

An intermittent urinary catheterisation assembly (1) for self-catheterisation comprises an intermittent urinary catheter (5) comprising a catheter tube. The catheter further comprises a conduit (4) extending longitudinally within the catheter tube and defining at least part of a flow path from a distal insertion end of the catheter to a proximal outlet end thereof, a measuring system for determining at least one fluid parameter in the flow path. The measuring system comprises at least one sensor element (35) configured to determine the at least one fluid parameter in the conduit and/or in a space in communication with the conduit and a signal processing device. In one aspect, the signal processing device comprises is detachable secured in relation to the connecting portion of the intermittent urinary catheter. In another aspect, the measuring system is securely connected to or integrated with the non-insertable portion of the catheter tube.

A blood separation method using a blood separation filter (10A) includes: an arrangement step of arranging a housing (18) such that a blood inflow chamber (20) is positioned below a filter member (24) and the blood outflow chamber (22) is positioned above a filter medium (38); a blood treatment step of allowing blood to flow in the filter medium (38) upward from vertically below; and a post residual treatment blood collection step of arranging the housing (18) such that an outflow port (28) is positioned vertically below the blood outflow chamber (22) so as to guide the post-separation residual blood in the housing (18) to the outflow port (28).

A dry-powder inhaler may include a first casing portion, a second casing portion, and a hinge arrangement connecting the first casing portion and the second casing portion. The dry-powder inhaler may be assembled by folding the first casing portion and the second casing portion together. The first casing portion may include a cavity for receiving a dose blister foil, said cavity being adapted to contain a dry-powder medicament. The first casing portion and the second casing portion when folded together may be adapted to form an inlet for allowing a lidding foil extending out there from and an outlet for providing the medicament.

Described herein are an interactive apparatus and methods for sensing and measuring real-time characteristic patterns of a subject's use of a dry powder inhalation system. The inhaler device can be used in a wireless communication mode to communicate with a display to assess the subject's usage of the inhalation system concurrently as the inhalation is performed and thus the subject's inhalation can be evaluated as well as the performance of the inhalation system. The system can also detect the identity of the medicament, its dosage, lot, expiration, etc. and the characteristics profile of a dry powder formulation emitted from the inhalation system in use.

An oxygen concentrator (100) may have a moisture conditioning system. In some implementations, the concentrator includes a compressor to induce feed gas into the concentrator. A first pathway may receive the feed gas from the compression system. The first pathway may be configured to draw moisture to produce moisture reduced feed gas. The first pathway may lead the moisture reduced feed gas to sieve bed(s) which produce oxygen enriched air with the moisture reduced feed gas. An accumulator may be configured to receive the produced oxygen enriched air from the sieve bed(s). A second pathway from the accumulator may apply the drawn-out moisture to the produced enriched air to produce humidified enriched air. A third pathway may transfer the drawn-out moisture from the first pathway to the second pathway. An outlet coupled with the second pathway may release the humidified enriched air from the concentrator for a user.

An aspect provides a ventilation manifold for a ventilator, the manifold comprising a fluid flow path, the flow path comprising: bifurcated end paths, a constriction path and a compressed breathable gas chamber fluidly coupled to a compressed breathable gas source, the manifold having a manifold axis defined by the constriction path; a source path of the bifurcated ends coupled to an outlet conduit for a ventilator to present the compressed breathable gas at a source angle to one side of the manifold axis; and a vent path at a vent angle to the manifold axis for an exhaust flow, the vent path acting to provide a fluid pressure valve upon an inlet compressed breathable gas from the constriction path to urge flow towards the source path and a by-pass for returned outlet spent gas flow from the source path against the inlet compressed breathable gas at the constriction path, the fluid pressure valve and the by-pass dependent upon the relative magnitudes of the source angle and the vent angle to the manifold axis and/or each other along with the configuration of the constriction path and/or the configuration of the source path and/or the vent path.