Patent ID: 7601141

Claim:
A pressure-actuated valve component for use in IV therapy to control fluid flow through a catheter in opposite infusion and aspiration directions, said valve component comprising: a housing including spaced apart intravenous fluid ports and a tapered male fitting that defines one of the ports and is operable to be fluidly coupled to the catheter, with a fluid passageway extending between the ports to present a passageway axis; and a valve body being disposed within the fluid passageway and including a flexible dome-shaped wall that presents a convex surface and an opposite concave surface, with the convex surface facing the infusion direction and the concave surface facing the aspiration direction, said dome-shaped wall including a normally closed slit extending between the surfaces and intersecting the passageway axis, said dome-shaped wall flexing to open the slit in response to an infusion fluid pressure differential across the wall, wherein the pressure against the concave surface is greater than the pressure against the convex surface, said dome-shaped wall flexing to open the slit in response to an aspiration fluid pressure differential across the wall, wherein the pressure against the convex surface is greater than the pressure against the concave surface, said valve body including a rib projecting from the concave surface in an orthogonally extending relationship to the slit, said slit intersecting said convex surface to form a convex arc having a convex arc length, said slit intersecting said concave surface to form a concave arc having a concave arc length, said convex arc length being greater than said concave arc length, with the slit presenting termination ends that are each at an oblique angle relative to the passageway axis, said slit intersecting the rib and extending along the dome-shaped wall radially outwardly from the rib relative to the axis so that the slit termination ends are spaced from the rib.