Granted Patent B2

US 12,629,507 · App. 18/140,078 · Granted May 19, 2026

Inventors: Markus Ferrari (Wiesbaden, DE); Joerg Schumacher (Aachen, DE)

Assignee: FCP Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH

A61M60/148A61B5/06A61B5/318A61M60/139A61M60/268A61M60/462A61M60/531A61M60/554A61F2/82A61F2250/0096A61M60/113A61M60/414A61M2205/32

Abstract

Claims (24)

1 . A method of determining a position of a blood pump in a body of a patient, the method comprising:

inserting the blood pump into a heart of the patient, the blood pump having a housing, wherein the housing surrounds a rotor;

actuating the rotor;

detecting, at one or more auxiliary sensors, a first signal, wherein the first signal represents electrophysiological signals of the heart of the patient;

detecting, at a main sensor having a fixed distance from the blood pump, a second signal, wherein the second signal is indicative of blood pressure values of the heart of the patient;

receiving, at a processing unit, the first signal;

receiving, at the processing unit, the second signal, wherein the second signal is received at the processing unit after the first signal, wherein the receipt, at the processing unit, of the second signal after the first signal is indicative of a migration velocity of the second signal;

comparing, at the processing unit, the first signal and the second signal;

determining, at the processing unit, based on the comparing, a position variable representative of the position of the blood pump in the body of the patient; and

determining, from the position variable, the position of the blood pump in the body of the patient.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the main sensor comprises a pressure sensor.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the pressure sensor is located at a tip of the blood pump.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more auxiliary sensors comprises at least one of an electrode or an antenna for detecting electrophysiological signals of the heart of the patient.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more auxiliary sensors are located outside the body of the patient.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the position of the blood pump in the body of the patient comprises:

determining, from the position variable, a position of the main sensor in the body of the patient; and

determining the position of the blood pump in the body of the patient based on the position of the main sensor in the body of the patient and the fixed distance between the main sensor and the blood pump.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising detecting, with the processing unit, a change in the position of the blood pump.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising generating, by the processing unit, a third signal when a threshold for the change is exceeded.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing, in a memory unit connected to the processing unit, at least one previously determined position of the blood pump.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising continuously comparing a currently determined position of the blood pump to the at least one previously determined position of the blood pump stored in the memory unit.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising determining a difference between the at least one previously determined position of the blood pump and the currently determined position of the blood pump.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising generating, by the processing unit, an additional signal if the difference exceeds an established threshold.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the generated additional signal is an alarm signal.

Assignments (2)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (4)

References Cited (281)