Rheological treatment methods and related apheresis systems
First Claim
1. A method of providing membrane differential blood filtration treatment comprising:
- (a) evaluating a candidate patient to identify whether the patient has a RAM associated disease and to determine that state and extent of that disease;
(b) determining whether the patient exhibits elevated plasma levels of at least two RAMs;
(c) declining to treat patients with membrane differential blood filtration who are not likely to respond to treatment or who might be harmed by the treatment;
(d) selecting a particular membrane differential blood filtration treatment protocol appropriate for chronic versus acute medical situations; and
(e) providing membrane differential blood filtration treatment.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Therapeutic apheresis treatments and diagnostic monitoring methods are described, specifically relating to the depletion and/or removal of a broad bandwidth of certain rheologically active elements from the blood of a patient followed by return of the blood so treated to the patient, and to methods or procedures of apheresis treatment, especially biophysiologic blood filtering treatments and computer medicated delivery methods configured to provide such apheresis treatments to patients with certain chronic, age-related, degenerative, atherogenic, thrombotic or inflammatory diseases; especially those associated with RAM accumulation-deposition causing disturbances of blood rheology or microcirculatory impairment.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method of providing membrane differential blood filtration treatment comprising:
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(a) evaluating a candidate patient to identify whether the patient has a RAM associated disease and to determine that state and extent of that disease;
(b) determining whether the patient exhibits elevated plasma levels of at least two RAMs;
(c) declining to treat patients with membrane differential blood filtration who are not likely to respond to treatment or who might be harmed by the treatment;
(d) selecting a particular membrane differential blood filtration treatment protocol appropriate for chronic versus acute medical situations; and
(e) providing membrane differential blood filtration treatment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An integrated apheresis treatment process comprising the steps of:
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(a) providing at least one dedicated out-patient, non-hospital, apheresis treatment facility;
(b) locating and selecting ambulatory, community-dwelling patients potentially capable of benefiting from apheresis treatments within a community that can be served by said apheresis facility;
(c) identifying and selecting from among said patients, by means which include measurement of serum levels of circulating rheologically active macromolecules in said patients, a subset of patients capable of benefiting from apheresis treatments;
(d) performing apheresis treatments in sessions on the selected patients in said dedicated out-patient apheresis treatment facility; and
(e) determining clinical endpoints to said apheresis treatments based upon reductions in serum levels of said rheologically active macromolecules and correlations of clinical symptomatology through disease-specific testing and serial endpoint and clinical assessments.
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6. An apheresis treatment method, comprising the steps of:
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(a) identifying chronically ill patients having age-related, degenerative, atherogenic, thrombotic or inflammatory diseases, said chronically ill patients being considered candidates for an apheresis procedure;
(b) storing patient profile data for an identified chronically ill patient;
(c) analyzing qualifying data for said identified chronically ill patient to determine applicability of an apheresis treatment; and
(d) performing apheresis treatments in sessions on said identified chronically ill patient. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apheresis treatment qualification method, comprising the steps of:
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(a) identifying a chronically ill patient having an age-related, degenerative, atherogenic, thrombotic or inflammatory disease, said chronically ill patient being considered a candidate for an apheresis procedure;
(b) storing patient profile data for said identified chronically ill patient;
(c) receiving, from a centralized database system, a composite patient profile derived from other patients similarly situated to said identified chronically ill patient;
(d) comparing said patient profile data with said received composite patient profile; and
(e) determining based upon the comparison in step (d), whether said identified chronically ill patient would likely benefit from apheresis treatments. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. A method of screening patients for a membrane differential blood filtration treatment comprising the steps of:
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(a) identifying whether the patient has a RAM associated disease and determining that state and extent of that disease;
(b) determining whether the patient exhibits elevated plasma levels of at least two RAMs;
(c) selecting patients who are likely to respond to membrane differential blood filtration treatment or who will not be harmed by the treatment; and
, optionally,(d) selecting a particular membrane differential blood filtration treatment appropriate for treating a specific RAM associated disease. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15)
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Specification