APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DOWN-REGULATING IMMUNE SYSTEM MEDIATORS IN BLOOD
First Claim
1. A method of treating a patient with a hematocrit of greater than 36% by removing one or more toxins from the patient'"'"'s blood, comprising:
- removing at least a portion of the patient'"'"'s blood having a hematocrit of greater than 36%;
diluting said at least a portion of the blood with a diluent to provide diluted blood, thereby reducing the hematocrit of said at least a portion of the blood;
concentrating the diluted blood thereby removing at least a portion of the diluent therefrom;
filtering said diluted blood to remove one or more toxins from said diluted blood, thereby producing treated blood; and
returning the treated blood to the patient.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for preventing and treating septicemia in patient blood is provided. The extracorporeal system includes an antimicrobial device to inactivate at least 99% of bloodborne microorganisms, a hemoconcentrator/filtration unit to remove approximately 50-75% of target molecules from the patient blood and a filter unit to remove target molecules from patient blood from the sieved plasma filtrate. Target molecules are produced by microorganisms, as well as by the patient'"'"'s cells. These molecules include endotoxins from Gram negative bacteria, exotoxins from Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria, as well as RAP protein mediator from Staphylococcus aureus, and cell mediators such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and interleukin 1-beta, interleukin 6, complement proteins C3a and C5a, and bradykinin.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1. A method of treating a patient with a hematocrit of greater than 36% by removing one or more toxins from the patient'"'"'s blood, comprising:
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removing at least a portion of the patient'"'"'s blood having a hematocrit of greater than 36%;
diluting said at least a portion of the blood with a diluent to provide diluted blood, thereby reducing the hematocrit of said at least a portion of the blood;
concentrating the diluted blood thereby removing at least a portion of the diluent therefrom;
filtering said diluted blood to remove one or more toxins from said diluted blood, thereby producing treated blood; and
returning the treated blood to the patient. - 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, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A method for removing toxins from the blood of a patient comprising:
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removing blood having a hematocrit greater than about 36% from the patient;
diluting the blood with a diluent, thereby reducing the hematocrit of said blood and producing diluted blood;
filtering the diluted blood with a first filter to receive the blood and extract cell mediators and diluent therefrom to produce filtered blood;
re-filtering the filtered blood with a second filter to produce treated blood; and
returning the treated blood to the patient. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A blood treatment system comprising:
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a removal device to remove a portion of the patient'"'"'s blood, wherein said portion of the blood has a hematocrit greater than about 36%;
a diluent source for supplying a diluent to reduce the hematocrit of the blood, thereby producing diluted blood;
a concentrator device to receive said diluted blood in order to filter said diluted blood and to remove the diluent therefrom, thereby producing filtered blood; and
a return path connected for returning said filtered blood from said concentrator device to a blood source.
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Specification