An adaptive drug infusion system.
BACKGROUND
In order to reduce the overall size and power consumption of ambulatory drug infusion systems, and to provide higher delivery accuracy, faster start-up, and more rapid occlusion detection, a non-contacting, low-power thermal time-of-flight technology has been used to provide a pressure-based miniature wearable drug infusion system that automatically compensates in real time for changes in pressure, viscosity, and flow path geometry.


METHODS
Prototypes have been designed, built, and tested on the bench and on animals.


RESULTS
For liquid volumes ranging from 30 nL to 100 microL, the measured accuracy and precision of delivery were better than 1%. Tests on 30-kg swine showed delivery within the study accuracy.


CONCLUSIONS
The performance of the prototypes demonstrates that real-time compensation of flow variables provides significant performance improvements in therapeutic infusion.
Simmons
Meghan
M
TheraFuse, Inc., Carlsbad, California 92008, USA.
Gillett
David
D
Catanzaro
Brian
B
Jacobs
Barry
B
Klonoff
David C
DC
Sage
Burton
B
D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D015918:Infusion Pumps, Implantable; D007328:Insulin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D013677:Medical Laboratory Science; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
D007328:Insulin