Patent ID: 8133194

Claim:
A system for regional citrate anticoagulation in an extracorporeal blood circuit including an arterial blood line arranged to be connected to a vascular access for withdrawing blood from a patient and a venous blood line arranged to be connected to the vascular access for returning blood to the patient, the system comprising: a hemofilter in fluid communication with the arterial and venous blood lines; a first pre-filter infusion line connected to the arterial blood line upstream from the hemofilter for infusing a first pre-filter infusion solution comprising a citrate anticoagulant-containing solution into blood in the arterial blood line; a second pre-filter infusion line connected to the arterial blood line upstream from the hemofilter for infusing a second pre-filter infusion solution comprising a first bicarbonate-containing solution into blood in the arterial blood line; a post-filter infusion line connected to the venous blood line downstream from the hemofilter for infusing a post-filter infusion solution comprising a second bicarbonate-containing solution into blood in the venous blood line, wherein at least one of the first and second bicarbonate-containing solutions has a bicarbonate concentration of about 20-60 mmol/L; an additional infusion line connected to the venous blood line downstream from a connection of the post-filter infusion line for infusing an additional infusion solution comprising a calcium- and magnesium-containing solution into blood in the venous blood line; and a control program for coordinating and monitoring the operation of the system, the control program programmed to monitor plasma flow online to calculate an infusion rate of the citrate anticoagulant-containing solution and the bicarbonate solutions necessary to keep a single pass fractional extraction of citrate on the hemofilter greater than or equal to 66%.