Medical Equipment Manufacturers Embrace Flow Meters for Recovering Heart Patients

Long the domain of engineers and manufacturing professionals, flow meters have traditional been used to measure the volumetric flow rate of gases and liquids. They are typically found within machinery that falls outside of the medical profession, but a few companies have found ways to use these devices in circulatory support systems, particularly while patients recover from heart surgery.

The industrial community uses flow meters for a number of different applications, including power plants, water treatment facilities, and chemical centers. They are typically a measurement device for water, corrosives, coolants, compressed air, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and many other fluids and gases. When treating acute heart failure, medical professionals are now able to use flow meters to function as a way to detect the flow of blood through the heart while a patient recovers.

Universal Flow Monitors creates custom-designed flow stream devices for use in the machines made by many well-known medical equipment manufacturers. These unique flow meters are used to drive air pulses to the ventricular assist devices used in cardiac recovery units. By controlling the pumping action of the machine, flow meters analyze the state of the pump to ensure that it is using the correct timing and pressure while it empties and fills corresponding ventricular pumps.

By working closely with medical equipment manufacturers who specialize in ventricular assist devices (VADs), these very unique flow meters are designed to measure relationships between pressure drop and flow within the human heart. The meters also use a temperature sensor and an absolute pressure sensor to compensate for variances in density. Additionally, these flow meters use a bidirectional feature to measure air flow both to and from the blood pumps.

As a supplier to the medical equipment industry, Universal Flow Meters has worked with manufacturers to successfully align their products with the stringent demands of heart recovery systems.

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