Systems and methods for preventing and treating infections with nitric oxide

Inventors

Silkoff, Philip E. • HALL, Gregory W. • Scholz, Wolfgang

Assignees

Third Pole Inc

Abstract

System and methods for providing nitric oxide can include at least one pair of electrodes configured to generate a product gas containing nitric oxide from a flow of a reactant gas, and at least one controller configured to regulate an amount of nitric oxide in the product gas generated by the at least one pair of electrodes using one or more parameters as an input to the controller. One or more sensors are configured to collect information relating to at least one of patient information, the reactant gas, the product gas, and an inspiratory gas into which at least a portion of the product gas flows, the sensors configured to communicate the information to the controller to be used as the one or more parameters. The patient information includes information relating to a methemoglobin (MetHg) measurement collected from a MetHg sensor.

Core Innovation

The invention provides a system for providing nitric oxide by ionizing a reactant gas in at least one plasma chamber to generate a product gas containing nitric oxide. A controller regulates an amount of nitric oxide in the product gas generated in the at least one plasma chamber using one or more parameters as an input to the controller. The sensors collect information relating to at least one of patient information, the reactant gas, the product gas, and an inspiratory gas into which at least a portion of the product gas flows, and communicate the information to the controller for use as the one or more parameters.

At least one sensor is configured to collect patient information relating to a methemoglobin measurement. The system includes an injection pump in communication with the controller, and the controller controls a delivery of methylene blue from the injection pump based on the methemoglobin measurement and the amount of NO delivered to the inspiratory gas to decrease a methemoglobin level.

In some implementations reflected by dependent claims, the controller uses methemoglobin measurement information to gate, suspend, and resume nitric oxide generation based on methemoglobin reaching threshold levels, and to dynamically change a NO dose using the methemoglobin measurement so that methemoglobin stays below a threshold while maximizing the quantity of NO delivered. The system further includes regulatory concepts directed to reducing NO2 via gas handling and scrubbing and to monitoring product gas and inspiratory gas with gas analyzers and remote or inline gas measurement concepts.

Claims Coverage

The document provides two independent claim positions. Across these independent claims, the inventive features focus on plasma-chamber NO generation, controller-based NO regulation from sensor inputs including methemoglobin measurement, and controller-controlled methylene blue delivery by an injection pump based on methemoglobin and the amount of NO delivered.

Both independent claims share the core control architecture: a plasma chamber produces a NO-containing product gas, a controller regulates NO amount using sensor-derived parameters including methemoglobin measurement, and the controller controls an injection pump to deliver methylene blue based on the methemoglobin measurement and the amount of NO delivered to decrease methemoglobin.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications