A Physiological Closed Loop System to Prevent Intradialytic Hypotensive Episodes

Chronic kidney disease is a gradual loss of kidney function over time and affects 10 % of the population worldwide. One of the common treatment of kidney disease is hemodialysis. Hemodialysis removes waste products and excess fluid from the bloodstream.

Intradialytic hypotensive episodes still represent the most frequent complication in dialysis treatments. One major reason that causes hypotensive episodes is the application of a non-adequate net fluid removal rate.

This work presents the development of a physiological closed loop system, which is applied during a dialysis treatment with the aim to prevent hypotensive episodes. This system is based on two physiological parameters that reflect a patient’s cardiovascular condition: the systolic blood pressure and the relative blood volume. From the evaluation of these two parameters an adequate net fluid removal rate is calculated by the closed loop system and applied to the patient by the dialysis machine.