Patent ID: 7896830

Claim:
A portable, wearable ultrafiltration device comprising: a belt enabling a patient to wear the ultrafiltration device on the patient's body while the patient is ambulatory, the belt including end portions having belt fastening means for fastening the belt around a portion of the patient's body; a blood inlet for receiving blood flow from a patient; a micro pump for infusing an anticoagulant into the patient's blood; a battery powered pulsatile blood pump connected to the blood inlet such that blood from the patient is pumped by the pulsatile pump through the ultrafiltration device at a flow rate between 15 and 100 ml/min.; a microcontroller for controlling the blood pump; a user interface operatively connected to the microcontroller for adjusting the pumping rate of the blood pump; an anticoagulant reservoir including a volume sensor operatively connected to the reservoir for providing a signal to the microcontroller when the volume of anticoagulant in the reservoir reaches a predetermined level; an alarm operatively connected to the microcontroller for signaling that the volume of anticoagulant in the reservoir has reached the predetermined level; a blood filter for filtering excess body fluid from the blood, the blood filter including a filter inlet connected to the pulsatile blood pump and a fixed semiporous filter material having a first surface in contact with the patient's blood and a second surface on which fluid from the patient's blood is received, the pulsatile pump pumping the patient's blood through the filter with sufficient pressure to force fluid from the blood through the semiporous filter material, the blood filter having a blood side and a fluid side configured so that the only fluid on the fluid side of the blood filter is fluid separated from the blood passing through the blood side of the blood filter; a blood outlet connected to the blood filter, the blood outlet receiving blood from the blood filter and conducting the blood back to the patient; an ultrafiltrate reservoir mounted on the belt, including a reservoir inlet connected to the fluid side of the blood filter such that the fluid reservoir receives and collects fluid from the fluid side of the blood filter; and an ultrafiltrate reservoir sensor for sensing a predetermined fluid level in the ultrafiltrate reservoir, the ultrafiltrate reservoir sensor providing a signal to the microcontroller when the sensor senses the predetermined fluid level in the ultrafiltrate reservoir; and an alarm operatively connected to the microcontroller for indicating that the fluid in the ultrafiltrate reservoir has reached the predetermined level.