Patent ID: 7524420

Claim:
An extracorporeal blood filtration circuit for treating a patient's blood to remove target molecules and target complex molecules, the circuit comprising: a line adapted to remove a portion of the patient's blood, deliver the blood to a blood filter and to return a portion of the patient's blood without being sieved; a blood filter operably coupled with the line so as to allow the portion of the patient's blood to flow therethrough, the blood filter operable to form a stream of filtered blood comprising the unsieved portion and a stream of ultrafiltrate with an ultrafiltration rate of between approximately two liters per hour and twenty liters per hour, the blood filter having a nominal molecular weight cutoff of greater than 150,000 Daltons and less than 1,000,000 Daltons so as to sieve more than a nominal amount of the target molecules and the target complex molecules from the portion of the patient's blood and to avoid removal of significant amounts of immunoglobulins from the portion of the patient's patient's blood; a source for infusing a replacement fluid into the blood circuit, the source including replacement fluid comprising clean target receptor molecules in sufficient amount so as to provide sufficient clean target receptor molecules to sequester inflammatory mediators and toxins from the patient's tissue and to replace the target receptor molecules sieved from the portion of the patient's blood by the blood filter, and sufficient albumin to maintain adequate plasma oncotic pressure with ultrafiltration rates between approximately two liters per hour and twenty liters per hour in a sufficient concentration to adequately replenish ongoing losses.