Catheter
First Claim
1. A vascular catheter for taking a plurality of discrete blood samples in vivo from within a length of a blood vessel, the vascular catheter including:
- an elongate central body arranged to be inserted, over a guidewire, into the blood vessel;
a plurality of longitudinally spaced blood collection areas defined along the elongate central body, the plurality of collection areas configured for collecting the discrete blood samples from the lumen of the blood vessel, each of the blood collection areas having at least one blood collection port; and
at least one static mixer comprising a respective plurality of mixing elements extending radially outwardly of the elongate central body and arranged at successive positions along and at corresponding successive angles around the elongate central body, the at least one static mixer being in non-contiguous contact with the blood vessel wall so as to maintain at least one open region between the plurality of mixing elements of the at least one static mixer and the blood vessel wall for blood flow, the at least one static mixer arranged to create a flow of blood from a boundary layer at a wall of the blood vessel, around the entire periphery of the blood vessel, to the elongate central body so as to enable the plurality of longitudinally spaced blood collection areas to collect the discrete blood samples from the boundary layer.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A catheter and associated method for taking a plurality of samples from within a length of a blood vessel. The catheter includes an elongate central body arranged to be inserted into and positioned along a central region of a blood vessel. A plurality of collection areas are defined along the elongate central body for collecting samples at the central region of the blood vessel. A plurality of mixers are provided radially outwardly of the elongate central body and arranged to create a flow of blood from a boundary layer at a wall of the blood vessel to the elongate central body. This enables the collection areas to collect samples from the boundary layer.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A vascular catheter for taking a plurality of discrete blood samples in vivo from within a length of a blood vessel, the vascular catheter including:
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an elongate central body arranged to be inserted, over a guidewire, into the blood vessel;
a plurality of longitudinally spaced blood collection areas defined along the elongate central body, the plurality of collection areas configured for collecting the discrete blood samples from the lumen of the blood vessel, each of the blood collection areas having at least one blood collection port; andat least one static mixer comprising a respective plurality of mixing elements extending radially outwardly of the elongate central body and arranged at successive positions along and at corresponding successive angles around the elongate central body, the at least one static mixer being in non-contiguous contact with the blood vessel wall so as to maintain at least one open region between the plurality of mixing elements of the at least one static mixer and the blood vessel wall for blood flow, the at least one static mixer arranged to create a flow of blood from a boundary layer at a wall of the blood vessel, around the entire periphery of the blood vessel, to the elongate central body so as to enable the plurality of longitudinally spaced blood collection areas to collect the discrete blood samples from the boundary layer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32)
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31. A vascular catheter for sampling blood in vivo from a blood vessel, comprising:
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a flexible catheter body for insertion over a guidewire into the blood vessel; a plurality of longitudinally spaced blood collection ports for simultaneously capturing discrete blood samples taken along a length of the blood vessel; and a static mixer located upstream of the plurality of longitudinally spaced blood collection ports and adapted to be deployed radially outwardly along a section of the catheter body for continuously mixing blood substantially across the entire radial extent of the blood vessel to include, in the discrete blood samples, blood present in a boundary layer at the blood vessel wall as blood flows through the static mixer, in which the deployable static mixer comprises a plurality of groups of mixing elements, each group of mixing elements being arranged at a respective position along the section of the catheter body and angularly offset relative to any preceding group of mixing elements, thereby in use to sequentially separate, rotate and recombine blood as it flows through the static mixer.
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Specification