Patent ID: 7473371

Claim:
A method for obtaining a measure of blood flow rate in a patient arterio-venous shunt, the arterio-venous shunt being connected to an extracorporeal blood circulating system, the extracorporeal blood circulating system having a dialyzer connected to the arterio-venous shunt by a first and a second line, wherein the first line directs blood from the arterio-venous shunt to the dialyzer and the second line directs blood from the dialyzer to the arterio-venous shunt, the method comprising the steps of: (a) connecting the dialyzer to the arterio-venous shunt with an inlet of the first line located downstream from an outlet of the second line; (b) providing a change in a parameter of the blood flowing in the extracorporeal blood circulating system; and (c) obtaining the measure of blood flow rate in the arterio-venous shunt based upon a resulting dilution curve by the change in said parameter of the blood and a dialyzer blood flow rate.