Patent ID: 8388567

Claim:
An apparatus for extracorporeal blood treatment, comprising: a membrane device for extracorporeal blood treatment, comprising a blood chamber and a fluid chamber which are separated from one another by a semipermeable membrane; an extracorporeal circuit connected to the blood chamber of the membrane device; a source of a priming fluid connected to the extracorporeal circuit; a pump connected to the extracorporeal circuit for fluid displacement; a drainage connected to an end of the extracorporeal circuit for discharge of the priming fluid; a pressure sensor connected to the extracorporeal circuit; a memory storing at least a reference value for discriminating at least a first type of extracorporeal circuit from at least a second type of extracorporeal circuit, the first type of extracorporeal circuit being different from the second type of extracorporeal circuit in that there is a difference in a nominal section of fluid passage there-through; a processor connected to the pump, to the pressure sensor and to the memory, the processor being programmed to perform following operations: i. controlling the pump to move the priming fluid along the extracorporeal circuit to a first flow rate value; ii. receiving from the pressure sensor a first pressure value at the first flow rate value; iii. receiving the reference value from the memory; iv. processing the first flow rate value and/or the first pressure value with the reference value; v. determining, on the basis of the result of the above processing, if the extracorporeal circuit belongs or not to the first type or the second type of extracorporeal circuit.