Vascular access was performed with the use of a blood pump.
Other limitations were the small number of animals per group and the short experimental duration of ex-vivo perfusion using a centrifugal blood pump providing non-pulsatile flow.
The procedure involves the use of an extracorporeal circuit, incorporating a blood pump and an oxygenator, to heat the perfusate and increase the oxygen tensions before delivery to the isolated limb [ 1, 4, 9].
Summarily, the procedure involves disconnecting the arterial end of the extracorporeal blood circuit from the arterial needle, then connecting the arterial end of the circuit to a saline infusion set, before using the blood pump to draw saline through the extracorporeal blood for wash back.
At the discontinuation of dialysis, the patient attaches the saline line (or on-line ultrapure/sterile dialysate line) to the Y-connect, then clamps the line between the arterial needle and the Y-connect, before using the blood pump to draw saline through the extracorporeal blood circuit for wash back.
We used the blood pump MB10, a Gambro poliamide filter FH77 to attain an ultrafiltration higher then 2000 ml/h.
Approved first in Europe in 2011 with an indication for use for patients with conditions where excessive cytokine levels exist, CytoSorb is a CE-marked device containing polymer beads to adsorb cytokines that is used in blood pump circuits [5, 11].
Arterial blood was sampled continuously using a peristaltic pump during the first 20 min of the recording, followed by manual sampling at 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, and 120 min after injection.
The calculation of absolute blood flow rates was performed by reference blood sampling from the aortic catheter using a withdrawal pump (2 ml/minute).
