Methods and devices for monitoring the integrity of a fluid connection

摘要

A method of monitoring the integrity of a fluid connection between first and second fluid containing systems based on at least one time-dependent measurement signal from a pressure sensor in the first fluid containing system. The pressure sensor detects first pulses originating from a first pulse generator in the first fluid containing system and second pulses originating from a second pulse generator in the second fluid containing system. A parameter value representing a distribution of signal values within a time window is calculated by analyzing the measurement signal in the time domain and/or by using information on the timing of the second pulses in the measurement signal. The parameter value may be calculated as a statistical dispersion measure of the signal values, or from matching the signal to a predicted temporal signal profile of the second pulse. The integrity of the fluid connection is determined from the parameter value.

主权项

1. A method for monitoring the integrity of a fluid connection between first and second fluid containing systems based on at least one time-dependent measurement signal from at least one pressure sensor in the first fluid containing system, wherein the first fluid containing system is an extracorporeal blood flow circuit comprising an arterial access device, a blood processing device, a venous access device and a first pulse generator, and the second fluid containing system is a human blood system comprising a blood vessel access and a second pulse generator, wherein:
the arterial access device is for connecting to the human blood system, the venous access device is connected to the blood vessel access to form the fluid connection, the first pulse generator is a pumping device arranged in the extracorporeal blood flow circuit to pump blood from the arterial access device through the blood processing device to the venous access device, and the at least one pressure sensor is arranged to detect first pulses originating from the first pulse generator and second pulses originating from the second pulse generator, said method comprising: receiving, at a processor, said at least one time-dependent measurement signal from the at least one pressure sensor; generating, by the processor, a time-dependent monitoring signal based on said at least one-time dependent measurement signal in which the first pulses are eliminated, said generating including (i) filtering said at least one time dependent measurement signal to remove the first pulses, (ii) deriving, based on timing information indicative of the timing of the second pulses in said at least one time-dependent measurement signal, a set of signal segments in the at least one time-dependent measurement signal after filtering the at least one time-dependent measurement signal to remove the first pulses, and (iii) aligning and adding the signal segments, based on the timing information, to generate said monitoring signal; calculating, by the processor, a parameter value based on signal values within a time window in the time-dependent monitoring signal, the parameter value representing a distribution of the signal values; and determining, by the processor, the integrity of the fluid connection based at least partly on the parameter value.