Introduction

The invention relates to a method for acquiring liquid biological samples from an extracorporeal circuit for a patient’s extracorporeal blood purification treatment. The method comprises a sampling phase from three access ports of the extracorporeal circuit by means of a hydraulic sampling machine with three channels activated simultaneously with the same flow rate value.

Technical features

The system consists of a mobile sampling device (which draws in a controlled manner from the extracorporeal circuit) and a fixed measuring device (which measures target solute concentrations and calculates extracorporeal clearance). The sampling system allows the safe, automated withdrawal of biological samples from the extracorporeal circuit with controlled speeds and suction pressures. With current procedures, the sampling process is inadequate in almost all cases. The samples obtained are then transferred to the measurement system to determine the concentrations of solutes characterizing specific molecular weights and quantify their transmembrane purification. The transmembrane purification of all solutes with different molecular weights, including those being treated, is then calculated in real time. TRL: 4; the current limit concerns the future stages of certification of the prototype, the costs and times associated with it.

Possible Applications

• Real-time analysis of the global purification capacity of the treatment (for solutes of any molecular weight);
• Calculation of the extracorporeal removal of treatment target solutes, the concentration of which would be unquantifiable bedside with current analytical methods.

Advantages

• Prescription and accurate monitoring of dialysis treatment;
• Adjustment of treatment to clinical and biological variations;
• Reduction of the analysis times of biological samples;
• Overcoming the current limitations of manual sampling.